Outside Ozona (1998)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Don't compare this with Pulp Fiction, or any other movie for that matter. Just watch it, not as a critic, but as a peeping tom looking into the real lives of real people. There are many times I prefer unknown actors in a movie because I can avoid preconceptions and watch the characters, not the actors. Yet even though I knew quite a few of these actors, I was able to lose myself in the people they created -- real people, like many I've met, hung with, talked to, cared about. I enjoyed this film, the laughs, surprises, interactions and shocks and I think reg'lar fellas (and gals) will too. It's kicking around Showtime, and you should catch it.

The Skokie Ripper has picked up killing women and stealing their cars along the Midwest and the film centers on various characters that he will affect in one way or another as their lives intersect in this interesting(I thought)character study.The thoughtful, existential screenplay was written by director Cardone and deals with topics such as regret, loneliness, fate, and death.Outside Ozona might make an interesting companion piece with Cardone's desert Midwestern vampire tale, The Forsaken.The film is filled with colorful, often profane dialogue. Could be Cardone's most ambitious script as a writer and he rarely has had such a competent cast to work with which included Robert Forster(as a gentle truck driver), Kevin Pollack(as an out-of-work circus clown), Penelope Ann Miller(..cast against type as Pollack's dim-bulb stripper-girlfriend), Taj Mahal(as a disgruntled and troubled radio jock whose voice is an important part of the film), Meat Loaf(as Mahal's radio manager who can not stop his employee from letting off steam on the air in a revolt against having to cover two shifts because another didn't come into work), Sherilyn Fenn(in a minor role as a possible victim of an unlikely serial killer), Swoosie Kurtz(as a diner waitress)& David Paymer(as a bible-quoting, fanatical sociopath murdering females on the road in his twisted, warped view of working for the Lord). Kateri Walker is a beautiful Navajo woman Forster befriends as she plans to take her dying mother, Effie(Lois Red Elk)to New Mexico before her death. The film basically follows the characters as they converse about their lives and what possibilities have passed them by.

I liked this movie because of it's excellent character development. All except the serial killer were interesting people. However, the main protagonist was the least developed character, and that weakened the whole film. The converging story lines maintained interest for the most part, other than a couple overlong stories that were nothing more than padding. The last scene in the radio station was totally unnecessary. Acting was above average, and the desert locations felt right. When the characters eventually meet their destiny, it is handled far better than many mainstream movies. A little script tightening, and more development of the killer would have improved what is already an above average film. - MERK

This film is far from the best I've ever seen but its definitely the best B-movie I've ever seen. The structure is Tarantino like with some of the familiar gore. However, this film does not attempt to be funny. This is a gritty, down to earth film following the stories of several likable characters through conversations eventually leading to a huge climax bringing them all together. This is the type of film you should watch late at night on the couch for the simple reason that you don't expect too much so you get a lot more than you hoped for in a B movie. And now for some very weird reason i have to make up ten lines of text. That should do it.