Plot: What’s it about?
This movie was nominated for several academy awards in 1997 and was written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Sling Blade is about a man who is in a mental hospital for killing his mother and her lover. His sentence has come up and now Karl (Billy Bob Thornton) is a free man. Karl is in his fourties now, he was put in the hospital when he was twelve, and doesn’t have anyone to go to. He would rather just stay in the hospital where he knows people, but he can’t. Karl is a queit man who keeps to himself and he is also really good at fixing small engines.
When Karl is released the supervisor of the hospital helps Karl to get a job at a lawnmower shop in the same town in which Karl was born. The town is also only twenty minutes from the hospital. He meets up with a 12 year old boy named Frank and with his mother’s, Linda, (Natalie Canerday) permission moves into their garage. Linda works at a market in town and her manager is also her best friend Vaughan. (John Ritter) Linda has a bastard of a boyfriend named Doyle (Dwight Yoakam) who loves to drink and yell at people. Karl and Frank develop a good friendship together. They both like they way each of them talks. Karl doesn’t like the way Doyle is treating his new friends so he feels he needs to take matters into his own hands.
This is a pretty good movie and the best thing about this movie is how believable the characters are. This movie is very well acted and I was especially surprised by the country singer Dwight Yoakam. This is a touching movie and I highly recommend a rental of it. I however do not recommend purchasing this movie unless you really love it. It would have been nice to have a 16×9 enhanced picture and some extra features for the $30 sticker. With some looking you should be able to find it for several bucks less though.
Video: How does it look?
Sling Blade is presented in a 1.85:1 letterbox format. The video looks fairly good and there were a few scenes that had some grain here and there, but nothing too bad
Audio: How does it sound?
The package says that it is in 5.1 sound, but that is not the case. It is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. It does its job since it is a dialogue driven movie. The musical score sounds pretty good, but your subwoofer and surrounds are pretty quiet throughout the presentation.
Supplements: What are the extras?
All you get here is a theatrical trailer that was blown up to fit your screen.
