Featured Audience Ratings

• Melvin W

  
  John Booth: Would you maybe, ya know, would you take a couple days, and maybe think about not taking my life?  "Some lives cross, others collide." The Crossing Guard is far from a great movie, but it still has its moments of power. This is easily my least favorite Sean… More
  John Booth: Would you maybe, ya know, would you take a couple days, and maybe think about not taking my life?  "Some lives cross, others collide." The Crossing Guard is far from a great movie, but it still has its moments of power. This is easily my least favorite Sean Penn directed movie, but the other three I've seen from him were all very good. The story here isn't very original, nor are the characters or anything the characters say. If I was struck by anything while watching this film it was how cardboard cutout everything seemed.  Freddy is a divorced, alcoholic jeweler who has never been able to get over the death of his daughter Emily. Emily was killed by a drunk driver years earlier and Freddy and his then wife Mary end up separating not too long afterwards. Freddy and Mary had two boys together too, but Freddy hasn't been around them much, especially since Mary had gotten a new husband. When the drunk driver is released from prison, Freddy goes to him and tells him he has three years to live. We learn through events that John Booth(the drunk driver) is not a bad guy, and that he is very sorry for what he did. After watching the film for an hour, you'll actually like John and hate Freddy.  The performances were so-so. Jack Nicholson has been much, much better, but he isn't bad. I expected a lot more from him, and this movie, based off of Penn and Nicholson's other work, The Pledge, which was a masterpiece. David Morse is also just okay as John Booth. The women probably give the best performances in the film; those being Anjelica Huston and Robin Wright. Obviously when you see Sean Penn's name and Jack Nicholson's name, expectations are going to be high. This isn't at all a terrible movie, but it is more bland then you would like. There's a few scenes that make the movie worth watching, but I wouldn't ever say this a must see film. In fact, if you're going to skip any of Sean Penn's directorial outings, make it this one. Overall, I was disappointed with this film as a whole. It could have and should have been so much better.

• Lady D

  
  A film I?ve been wanting to see for a while but perhaps my expectations were set too high. The story was slow moving. The performances were average and iddn?t really come up a level even towards the end. True story????

• Anthony L

  
  Sean Penn is as good a director as he is an actor. Jack Nicholson & David Morse are fantastic in this powerful and touching drama!

• Jon L

  
  Great casting/acting. Good story idea but could probably have been executed better.

• Dean M

  
  Just fine drama of a jeweler is shredded by grief after his young daughter is killed by a drunk driver. He resolutely tells his estranged wife that he plans to shoot the culprit now that he has been released from prison. It's an unpleasant but riveting story about strained moral… More
  Just fine drama of a jeweler is shredded by grief after his young daughter is killed by a drunk driver. He resolutely tells his estranged wife that he plans to shoot the culprit now that he has been released from prison. It's an unpleasant but riveting story about strained moral responsibility, the licking of emotional wounds, the contradictions of masculinity, and the tragic cracks into which whole families can tumble.

• xGary X

  
  Intersting character driven study of loss and guilt that contains some quality performances, but ultimately it's too slow-moving.

• Walter M

  
  [color=dimgray]Note to future filmmakers: never start your movie with a scene in a stripclub. It has a sleazy, 3:00 am HBO sort of feel to it.(Not that I would know anything about that...) Case in point: "The Crossing Guard" starts that way and it is a bad start for the… More
  [color=dimgray]Note to future filmmakers: never start your movie with a scene in a stripclub. It has a sleazy, 3:00 am HBO sort of feel to it.(Not that I would know anything about that...) Case in point: "The Crossing Guard" starts that way and it is a bad start for the movie because it definitely sets the wrong mood.(Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall "Exotica" starts out in customs in an airport.) Now I know Freddy(Jack Nicholson, in full psycho mode) is a complete mess and only has social interaction with the fellow denizens of said club. He is completely unable to come to terms with the death of his daughter six years ago killed by a drunk driver, John Booth(David Morse, in a very good performance), while Freddy's ex-wife(Anjelica Huston) is slowly rebuilding her life. Freddy finds out that John Booth has just been released from prison and plans to kill him. But Freddy is such a screw-up that he forgets the ammunition for his gun. He swears to return in three days time. Now, that is how the movie should start; it should not be thirty minutes in. There is a lot of "The Crossing Guard" which is unnecessary and a good deal of it is overwrought and overdone even if it is well-meaning.[/color] [color=#696969][/color] [color=#696969]Note 1: Morse and John Savage were both in Inside Moves(1979). Morse's character here also might share an unpleasant event with his character from St. Elsewhere.[/color] [color=#696969][/color] [color=#696969]Note 2: Director Sean Penn dedicates the movie to Henry Charles Bukowsky.[/color] [color=#696969][/color] [color=#696969]Note 3: In The Crossing Guard, Mikey & Nicky and The Woodsman, I have been noticing that the only characters who ride city buses are either criminals or ex-cons.[/color]

• Jeffrey M

  
  The Crossing Guard is a drama that flirts with misery porn, but overcomes it with a powerful and authentic performance by Jack Nicholson. While it's not always clear what Sean Penn, the director, is trying to convey, he succeeds in offering a complex revenge/family drama. The… More
  The Crossing Guard is a drama that flirts with misery porn, but overcomes it with a powerful and authentic performance by Jack Nicholson. While it's not always clear what Sean Penn, the director, is trying to convey, he succeeds in offering a complex revenge/family drama. The ending, to be sure, didn't fit the story, but enough is right (especially Nicholson and Morse) to make it worth a watch, especially for Sean Penn fans.

• John B

  
  A lot of people enjoyed this one with Nicolson being forced to play someone other than Nicolson for the first time in a long time. Also Sean Penn directed it so how could it be bad? Well I thought the pace was far too slow and I found it to not be particularly memorable.

• Ivan D

  
  Moody, dark, but very enlightening and touching in the end. Jack Nicholson gave a very emotionally detached and vulnerable performance, far from majority of the characters he always play. David Morse was also good, and so was Anjelica Huston and Robin Wright Penn, but the film overall… More
  Moody, dark, but very enlightening and touching in the end. Jack Nicholson gave a very emotionally detached and vulnerable performance, far from majority of the characters he always play. David Morse was also good, and so was Anjelica Huston and Robin Wright Penn, but the film overall was just okay, but still a worthy directorial effort by Sean Penn.

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