JerryLansche

I thought this was going to be a crime drama, but I was very much mistaken. It's a movie about a single mother (Amanda Seyfried) with a predatory ex-husband, the mother raising their son. In addition, we have endless flashbacks about Seyfried and her younger sister. The younger sister is now a junkie, and Amanda is searching for her, fearing for her safety.

Kate Winslet might have pulled this off, maybe Tony Collette, maybe Hillary Swank, but Amanda Seyfried doesn't carry that kind of weight

If you're looking for a family drama about drugs, The relationship between two young sisters, an irascible grandfather, and raising a little boy, well then, settle back and enjoy yourself. If you're looking for a crime drama, however, move along, there's nothing to see here.

If you give your audience, a good story, they can overlook an awful lot. In this movie, you have to overlook some absolutely atrocious dialogue and some plot holes, big enough to fit a stretch limousine through. Actors can't overcome dialogue this bad and Ben Mendelsohn and Shailene Woodley don't. Ben's character is so bad, at no point in the movie is he convincing. Shailene Woodley's talent is such that she runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. What any talent agent ever saw in her is beyond me. Maybe he thought there was going to be a shortage of actresses with blank stares and he was eager to fill that gap. Still, it's a good story, and a good story makes up for a lot of faults.

A game warden who solves crimes with his wife? Wow, what a concept.

First off, let me say my wife and I are huge Blue Bloods fans, watch it every Friday. We know what it is--a guilty pleasure. Same with Joe here. It's a pleasant way to pass a few hours, absolutely no drag on the brain cells, pretty scenery, some interesting characters. It's better than "The Father Dowling Mysteries" and "The Snoop Sisters." It would probably be better than "Mr. And Mrs. North" except that show had Richard Denning as the lead and he's just SO much better than Michael Dorman who frequently looks like he's right in the middle of a bowel movement with that trademark grimace of his.

"Joe Pickett" is on a comfortable par with "Murder She Wrote", "Diagnosis Murder", "Quincy", and "Burke's Law." If you liked those, you'll like this. Again, a guilty pleasure, nothing special.

If you're looking for a better crime-fighting married couple, "McMillan and Wife" is your ticket. There's nothing wrong with Julianna Guill that a little more Susan Saint James couldn't fix. Dorman is no Rock Hudson, either the before or after version.

Finally, if you want the BEST crime-fighting married couple, just go stream "Hart to Hart." Nobody was ever more handsome than Robert Wagner or more beautiful than Stefanie Powers. The plots still hold up and the series was just as good as "Blue Bloods" is now. And here I am, back where I started.