Review of The Badge (2002) by Isabell B — 21 Feb 2005

Billy Bob Thornton is one of our greatest actors with a wide and endless range and he proves it again in [i]The Badge[/i], a film that without his terrific performance would have been forgettable. His character, a small town sheriff who is looked down upon by the higher political power and is on the brink of alcoholism is a cliched protagonist, but Thornton refuses to let him become dull. It is such an electric and unpredictable performance that it steps in and rescues the film from entering a garbage of nothingness.

Patricia Arquette plays a stripper who calls on the sheriff's help to investigate the murder of her husband/wife (??? you just have to see it). Once again, the relationship presented between these two characters is one we're all too familiar with, but Thornton and Arquette possess an exciting chemistry that prevents anything from becoming less than watchable. Arquette has had a very well rounded career giving outstanding performances in both [i]Flirting With Disaster [/i]and [i]Bringing Out the Dead [/i]as well as two average films with great performances [i]True Romance [/i]and [i]Human Nature[/i]. Also good in the film is the always impressive Jena Malone in a small role as Thornton's distant daughter and Thomas Haden Church as Thornton's brother.

It's really sad to see great acting in films like this never see a chance in theaters, but I can definitely see why it went straight to video. The choice of direction, music score, and editing are insultingly awful at times. There are some sequences in this film (and mostly all straight to video movies) that seem like they were traced directly from a weekly television mystery storyboard. My 6/10 review is a choice I made simply because the acting is so good that even the film itself cannot distract these terrific performers from doing what they do best.