Review of Sling Blade (1996) by Kevin S — 06 Sep 2012

When he was little Carl came home and witnessed his mom with no clothes on and a guy on top of her. Thinking he was doing something bad to her Carl Pulled our a sling blade and whacked him in the head with it killing him. He found out his mom was not upset over what this guy was doing and she started yelling at him and he hits her over the head with the sling blade and kills her too. Carl really isn't the murdering type he is a guy that im not going to say the r word becuase it is not nice but he has special needs or mentally handicapped so they put him the mental institute instead of jail. Twenty five years later he gets released and goes back to his hometown. and the doctor that took care of him let him stay at his house because Carl had nowhere to go. And the doctor hooked him up with a job. So Carl is walking around town and runs into a kid who he ends up helping him bring his laundry back to his house. Carl becomes friends with this kid and his mom and ends up moving in with them. The mom has a boyfriend who is a real jerk and is abusive who is played by Dwight yoakam. There is another guy who has feelings for the mom too but he is gay named Vaughn who is played by John Ritter. Carl feels bad for the kid who says he is a good friend and mom and kind of wants to hang around to protect them. He tells the mom about "his past" and she was pretty cool about it. He knows they are in danger with the boyfriend around. That's all I'm going say about the story I don't want to spoil it. Billy bob Thornton who directed this also starred in it of course as Carl who I thought did a marvelous job. I'm not really a huge fan of his but this he was great in. He had the stance and walk And facial features down right of someone who is mentally handicapped. Dwight yoakam was pretty good as the crude and abusive boyfriend. And John Ritter I always enjoy watching. Such a Shame he died so young. R.i.p. John. I can see why this movie got all the acalades it got and it deserves it.

If you have not watched this I would go out now and find it and rent it. I don't know if redbox carrys it but I even heard Netflix has it if you get it. Heck I would even buy it because it is defiantly worth the money. It is defiantly worth the two hours and fifteen minutes of watching.