Ralph's Movie Reviews: WALK THE LINE

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

WALK THE LINE

Biography

BACKGROUND
Country-western star Johnny Cash (1932-2003) recorded more than 1,500 songs, sold more than fifty million records and won eleven Grammy awards. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Joaquin Phoenix: J.R. Cash, better known as Johnny
Robert Patrick: his father Ray
Ginnifer Goodwin: his mother Vivian
Dallas Roberts: Sam Phillips, owner of the Sun Records recording studio
Waylon Payne: Jerry Lee Lewis
Johnny Holliday: Carl Perkins
Jonathan Rice: Roy Orbison
Shooter Jennings: Waylon Jennings
Tyler Hilton: Elvis Presley
Reese Witherspoon: June Carter

REVIEW
Fans of Johnny “The Man in Black” Cash will love the movie. It’s a well told story about a troubled person coupled with performances by the two lead actors which are nothing short of amazing. You forget you’re watching someone portray Johnny and June Carter. It is uncanny.
The movie includes many of Johnny’s big hits, frequently cutting them short to keep the movie running time to a reasonable length.

CLASSIFICATION

for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency.

P.S.
The title comes from his 1958 hit "I Walk the Line"
BTW: the unnamed Ontario, Canada concert location mentioned was Toronto.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.