The Crossing Guard

I want to begin my own real life revenge thriller and hunt down Sean Penn for accepting this ending as the best possible option.

What the fuck is this movie? It's so awkward, every stilted line of dialogue spewed in unnatural and unconvincing seriousness. There's also a lot - like a whole lot - of tacky slow motion. The ending is laughable.

What a laughable ending!

uneven but well acted

Underrated revenge flick, Sean Penn's second film as a director is an uneven but ambitious and ultimately rewarding project that boosts some fine acting on behalf of Nicholson, Morse and Huston. It's definitely imperfect, but it has admirable ambition -and although Penn often fails to fulfill his vision in practice, the existence of a vision itself is always appreciated. The first hour suffers from poor pacing, but the final 30' are dynamite and the conclusion purgative and redemptive.

Just too melodramatic and the ending was bad.

With the amount of talent involved, this should have been much better. I l was happy to see David Morse getting a decent role as he is one of my favorite "hey it's that guy!" actors, but without the talented cast this would be a Lifetime movie of the week.

This is a dark, brooding and extremely well acted tale of a revenge, redemption and forgiveness. Sean Penn proves once again that he's actually much better behind the camera which is crazy because he's an amazing actor.

An OK film and a surprisingly bland performance from Jack, but hey...Kari Wuhrer's breasts are superb, aren't they?

Well-written and acted, there are some dull parts but kept my interest overall.

MUST REWATCH.

Not bad.

Superb acting - A master class in the portrayal of grief. Too much painful emotion means that it is never entertaining or enjoyable.

Not Jack's best but it's still Jack and that counts for a lot.

Sean Penn writes and directs this star-studded mid-90s theatrical release that for all intents and purposes looks like a made-for-TV movie from a decade before. Nicholson is okay, if a little too 'full-on' from the off, but there's a certain whiff of ham about the entire production (Huston in particular). You stick with it to see if the (boring) story picks up but it just gets worse, the climax in particular so eye-rollingly stupid you regret having bothered.

Sean Penn sitting behind the camera thinking about beating the absolute hell out of Madonna.

A great deal of problems with pacing, writing (especially the ending is preposterous), and the way it looks (like a movie 15 years older, on TV). Morse is great.

Some developments read suspiciously like a writer's device, but Jack has never played such a vulnerable, broken man as he does with shocking power in this ironic circle of tragedy in drowning one's sorrows with drinking to excess. Its ambition bloats it, but it's still meaningful, surprising and psychologically mosaic, and reminiscent of other films directed by experienced film actors where they extract far more layers, subtext and emotional depth than most dramas.