The Crossing Guard (1995)

Unfortunately some fine acting by Jack Nicholson is badly wasted due to a script that stretches credibility to the extreme. The first problem is the numerous t&a scenes that do nothing to enhance anything other than Jack Nicholson's ego. Second, there are scenes that are totally unbelievable, and the ending seems nothing more than audience manipulation. Third, there is very little character development other than Jack Nicholson, and Angelica Huston's part should have had far more importance. Fourth, the title "The Crossing Guard" is way off base, giving no hint that the main theme of the film is redemption, and forgiveness. Not recommended. - MERK

Fmovies: I was looking forward to seeing a movie with Jack Nicholson that I had never seen.

So I rented it this week. I was disappointed in the overall production. It was way too long and while there were some scenes with some good acting , Nicholson was not very good--due more to the poor direction and the script than to him.

The plot was certainly different and very dramatic , the reaction of parents to the death of their young daughter by a man driving his car in a school crossing. It is never made clear if the crossing guard shown in one brief seen half asleep was asleep at the time of the accident.

Not only was the ending far too long , it was completely improbable , Neither actor was a Marathon runner.

You might want to see it for the same reason I did , viz. to see Jack Nicholson and Angelica Huston ,,but if you are looking for a great movie , look somewhere else.

Those posters who yearn for action, action, and yet more action should rate the movies they are most fond of and leave those with depth and feeling the hell alone. Guys you are about as deep as a puddle in the street.

Sean Penn did an incredible writing and directing job. He assembled an all-star cast and directed them with such skill that no one performance overshadows another, yet all of them are powerful and provocative. It's really great to see David Morse in yet another fine performance. This guy is totally under-rated. Jack Nicholson is, as always, at his finest. Anjelica Huston turns in another powerful performance. It was also good to see Priscilla Barnes after many long years doing a credible, no excellent, portrayal of the "bad girl" with a soul.

If you want to see a film that actually has some depth see this one.

The Crossing Guard fmovies. This film should have been good. It has a potentially great plot, and the first few scenes are very good. Then, it simply falls apart, and the main plot is basically ignored for much of the remainder of the movie. I also found the ending to be somewhat disappointing, although it was nice to see the focus back on the central storyline. The acting was certainly good, as you would expect in a Jack Nicholson movie, but the real tragedy is that David Morse was absolutely wasted. He was outstanding, but he rarely had anything to work with. What a disappointment.

It's hard to find a Jack Nicholson movie where he acts so poorly that it bothers the viewer. But here is the needle in the haystack.

Nicholson's performance is overacted, uninspired, and adolescent. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Anjelica Huston seems to follow suit! It's almost as if there was a bad-acting virus on the set.

However one actor who had apparently been vaccinated was David Morse. This is probably the one and only bright spot in the movie. Morse is fantastic. His portrayal of John Booth is convincing, multi-dimensional, and consistent. It is twice as amazing that Morse was able to pull off such an impressive job when one considers that he had to play off the pitiful Nicholson. Robin Wright did give Morse at least something to work with as her performance was fairly good, although hampered by the story...

..which brings us to the worst aspect of the movie--the screenplay. Imagine a story called, "The hammer hits the nail," where viewers are forced to watch an ultra-slo-mo of a hammer coming down on a nail, periodically broken up by sporadic, unnecessary banter, and you have this in a nutshell. The story is painfully predictable, and morbidly slow-moving. One walks away saying, "That was it? But I already knew that." The actual story should only take about 5 minutes. The rest is filler. And bad filler.

The climax of the movie (if one can call it that) is a pathetically unrealistic chase scene where the out-of-shape, 50-something, smoking alcoholic character played by Nicholson out runs the young, muscular and fit Morse over a distance of some 3 miles or so (although it seems like 20 miles to the viewer). Nothing is given away by this description however, since most viewers already know how a movie like this will end.

The title of the film, "The Crossing Guard" is of course irrelevant to all but self-described film experts who have infinite time and desire to conjure up the "real" meaning of films and teach them to the rest of us. However, it most likely refers to the tragic failure of a talent-guard to catch this script before it made it to production.

with such a good cast, I was shocked I had not heard of this movie. But after watching it, now I understand. It was a pretty good idea for a movie, but not executed very well. I just felt like Sean Penn had all these great ideas and grand schemes for an intense movie. But instead of focusing in on one solid motif, he threw too many concepts and character issues into the mix. The entire stripper / sexual sub plot with Jack could have been completely left out. There was not a lot of depth behind the acting, it was just kinda there.

Like I mentioned, the plot line kinda skated on the surface of being deep. Nothing about the movie really touched me. Especially considering I lost a family member in a similar way, I thought I would be crying my heart out. But honestly I found it barely entertaining. But if nothing is on TV and the internet isn't working, I suggest watching it.