Billy Bob Thornton,
Coronji Calhoun,
Dante Beze,
Halle Berry,
Heath Ledger
...( see more
)
Hank, an embittered prison guard, lives with his aging racist father, Buck, and his own twenty something son, Sonny. Hank and Sonny work for the local prison where they are preparing the electric chai...( read more
)
DVD Release Date: June 11, 2002
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Stats: 2,421 reviews
Your Rating
Flixster Reviews (2,421)
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December 22, 2009A bitter-sweet tale from start to finish, this film is all about breaking generational cycles of learned behaviour. The film has a very raw honesty about it and the emotions go from each extreme, from no feeling to intense feeling and is a most extroidinary tale of love and lost...( read more)
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December 9, 2009I'm not sure why I put off seeing this for so long. Maybe it was because all anyone ever talked about were the steamy love scenes between Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (?). Maybe Stephanie Zacharek's negative review put me off (?). Whatever the reason, I'm happy to admit ...( read more)
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September 24, 2009Frankenstein?s testicle. Joking, this is a very entertaining film, brilliantly played by Billy Bob Thornton.
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September 11, 2009Really depressing movie. The ending was really weird. But it was good to see Thornton's character finally come around.
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February 4, 2010This movie tries to tell a story, with no aesthetic ambition. Apparently realistic, in fact it is broken into pieces. Appears to have been made in haste and that someone thought that everyone will be busy commenting on sex scenes and will not be interested in details.
Fortunately...( read more) -
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December 1, 2009i wanted to see it because of heath ledger
(heartbreaking scene of heath)
plus i had heard good things but that was a bad movie
so like in the end the bad parents live?
yeah it's realistic but i mean halle berry or billy bob
should have died in the end -
Critic Reviews
February 8, 2002
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
February 1, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The movie has the complexity of great fiction, and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are made. full review
January 4, 2002
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
It's less than half a fine movie. The great surprise is that its actors come through in the clutch. full review
December 26, 2001
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
This is one of those rare movies in which even people glimpsed only for a moment or two seem to have lives that ramify beyond the screen, as if the story were being witnessed rather than dramatized. full review
December 21, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
The actors make it unique and unforgettable. full review
Comments
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March 2, 2007The title comes from a custom in medieval England where prisoners awaiting execution were called monsters. The night before their execution, their jailers would hold a feast known as a monster's ball as their final farewell. For those who don't know what monster's ball is.
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June 21, 2006Good thing Halle Berry had a super hot sex scene or this movie would not be worth seeing but because of it I've seen the movie a thousand times!!
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