Stone Cold (2005)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It is a performances centric movie

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It this first episode of the Jesse Stone series Tom Selleck portrays a small town cop who is forced to deal with killings that seem to keep piling up. He had been a big town cop so he had more experience than the average small town cop which proved to he his edge in this intriguing TV movie. It looked might good to have been made specifically for TV.I like the pace this and all of the Jesse Stone series move at. I bit slow for those who like to see cars flying through the air and buildings exploding. With Jesse Stone it is ninety percent mind work. We get to see his facial expressions, watch his actions as a gateway to what his thoughts are. He speaks only when he needs to, He is a straight shooter, no games, no politics. He truly is a sensible, good cop kind of guy.I saw this a few years ago and recently when I watched another I decided it was time to come and post a comment. I'm going to start on the rest of the series. The DVD rental store nearest me told me it is hard to keep the Jesse Stone movies on the shelf. They have a way of disappearing. Evidently people like them so well they keep them and offer to pay for them.

Stone Cold made in 2005 was the first film in the Jesse Stone series of films adapted from the novels written by Robert Parker.Confusingly the next film Night Passage served as a prequel of Jess Stone, a high profile police detective with a drinking problem arriving to small town of Paradise in Massachusetts.Tom Selleck is the world weary Stone, a recovering alcoholic with an ex wife almost starting out again in Paradise as the police chief.Paradise is plagued with a random shooter who is getting personal with Chief Stone as his girlfriend is targeted. Jess Stone suspects a smarmy couple renting a house but he needs to prove it.There is also the shocking case of a high school student who is gang raped and threatened by fellow students. When he arrests one of the kids he has to deal with the angry father and their expensive attorney.There is not much mystery in this film. We quickly find out what happened to girl at school and the suspects are quickly identified. As for the random shooter, again Jess Stone realises who the suspects may be so it is case of how they get caught.It is a character piece about Stone himself, a flawed man who is a good cop with principles. The opening film was good, a slow burner but not dull although in real life such high profile shootings in a small town will have the FBI and mass media crawling all over the place.

I think that the whole Jesse Stones series has been really excellent entertainment, and the best thing Tom Selleck has ever done. It's a shame there are no more episodes on the way.The 'New England' locations (actually filmed in Canada, I believe), show a laid-back region of the US where everything is not how it seems. As a Limey, I can appreciate how New England got its name - it's always raining!The plots are ingenious, and full of surprises but hardly any gun-play, which is how I prefer my drama to be. The cast is excellent - even the dog looks mournful on cue (!), and the women are beautiful. What more could a man want?

This one is extremely disappointing, especially if you have seen other ones of the Jesse Stone series. The dialogue is pretty bad and clearly aimed to dish out as many memorable one-liners as possible. Although Stone still seems to be an alcoholic, that does not affect him at all, he is fully functional. At one point it becomes clear that he has been divorced five years ago, yet his ex still leaves messages on his answering machine ? His relationship to the prosecutor is way too cozy and lacks all tension now. The couple that randomly murders people is really just ridiculous and lacks all credibility. Each and every subplot is way too overdone. Why would high school football players rape a thirteen year old, small and fairly ugly, kid ? And if he KNOWS who the killers are, why are they not put under 24-hour surveillance immediately ? Oh yes, earlier on they film him, with a camera that cannot possibly be more than 20 feet away, and he does not notice ? And yet another lawyer coming on to him ? In summary, nothing makes sense in this film, there is too much stuff moving too fast. Too bad, since other Jesse Stone sequels are really good...