Goin' South

Decided to watch this just cause its got Jack in it and cause he also directs the film! Very low budget, with a great cast.

The loveable rouge jack seems to have a blocked up nose the whole way through, presumingly due to the fact he was hanging around Peter Fonda and Denis Hopper at the time if you catch my drift?!

A story of love and fortune with the idiots added on for extra effect.

If you don't mind wasting away the odd 2 hours then watch, even if its just to see Jack looking so God dam young again!

Jack Nicholson not only starred, but also directed this sweet, quirky Western about a condemned thief who is saved from the Gallows by being married to a local Spinster. This alone makes it quite an unusual film as Jack has only ever been involved in directing four films throughout his whole movie career. I think that he put quite a bit of effort in making a story that is certainly different and memorable.

The lovely Spinster is played by the beautiful Mary Steenburgen, who has charmed many a screen villain since this debut feature appearance in her first movie. Still someone who married Malcolm McDowell in real life is not going to be scared by a cuddly character like Jack, who apparently first met her at Paramount Studios and took to her straight off.

Her scheme in the story is to get some cheap labour in the form of Henry Moon, but this stirs up the local law team of Deputy Towfield (Christopher Lloyd) and Deputy Hector (John Belushi), who had plans of their own for Miss Julia Tate (Steenburgen). Therefore they spend a great deal of time in trying to plant him six foot under or at least back in the pokey.

Add in the rotten tricks from Moon's old gang Hermine (Veronica Cartwright), Big Abe (Jeff Morris), Hog (Danny DeVito) and Coogan (Tracey Walter) and you have a cast that could take on any Western Comedy/ Romance script going. Nicholson certainly knew how to cast for a pacey plot.

I shall not spoil the story, but this is not a John Wayne movie, it is gritty, smelly, sweaty and full of twists.

This is not the sort of tale that wins Oscars, but it is amusing, entertaining and well crafted and certainly worth the money.

Very entertaining western, i think Jack Nicholson's best western and directing effort, I recommend it even to those who are not Nicholson's fans.

Great fun, Jack cannot do anything wrong in my eyes whatever he does! Actually quite touching in places as their relationship develops.

Don't rent this film if your a John Belushi fan, he only has a few lines and they were hardly worth saying. The film was ok though, just not what I was expecting. Great for fans of Jacks eyebrow though...