All the Pretty Horses (2000, USA)

Bad, bad, bad. Lordy, was this bad. I've heard rumor that Thornton has a 3- or 4-hour cut out there somewhere, which I personally hope never sees the light of day. He and his screenwriter took a great Cormac McCarthy book and turned it into a TV movie. While the acting is generally okay, most of the juice is sucked out of the characters due to an overreliance on the romantic plot. Sure, a longer cut might fix that particular problem, but everything else in the film is so incredibly overwrought that I couldn't help but start giggling once or twice - bad writing, bad lighting, and some particularly bad editing were three of the biggest culprits. (And don't gt me started on the egregious use of slo-mo. Three-fourths of this movie is filmed in slo-mo. I hope to never see a slo-mo horse sequence again as long as I live.)

Plusses? The cinematography is generally lovely, save for when the editor is busy chopping it to hell. And it's always great to see Lucas Black. Oh, and the director didn't make a vanity cameo. Really, that's all I've got.

By the way, if anyone can explain to me what the hell was up with that freakishly creepy imaginary tap dance sequence, I'd really appreciate it.