ghosts of mississippi review

 

Rob Reiner knows his job. There'san underlying issue here. 5.0 out of 5 starsGhosts of Mississippi is One of My All-time Favorite Movies - A must see! With that said, this film's enjoyability most certainly doesn't end with those early acts, because although the film ultimately betrays both its potential and promises with perhaps too much ambition, as I said, from this ambition spawns inspiration, and enough of it to keep the film, or at least the script, going. The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Golden Tomato Awards: Best Movies & TV of 2020. Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2017 |, January 1, 2011 If nothing else, Rob Reiner's overwrought but sincere "Ghosts of Mississippi" reminds us that Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg really can act when they put their minds to it. Alec Baldwin brings intensity, aggressiveness and never say die attitude to his role as Bobby DeLaughter. “Ghosts ofMississippi” generates nowhere near as much passion. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. The decay of the subjects, the waste, the wanton beauty of these disappearing houses could not help but entrance me. Directed by Rob Reiner. — Kenneth Chisholm Ghosts of Mississippi is a real-life drama covering the final trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the assassin of heroic civil rights leader Medgar Evers. |, November 11, 2004 Inspiring true story. As Godfrey Chesire points out in his review in Variety, “Whenfuture generations turn to this era's movies for an account of the strugglesfor racial justice in America, they'll learn the surprising lesson that suchbattles were fought and won by square-jawed white guys.” Maybe Hollywood believesthat racially-charged plots play better at the box office with white stars inthe leads. Hell, I can't even get a woman to love me while I'm still alive. Man, James Woods is so convincing at playing a bad guy that he probably did end up convicted for the murder of Medgar Evers, or at least that's my excuse for James Woods' not showing up in anything for the past couple of years. | Rotten (17). 2.5/5 - Fair. Now, decades later in 1989, Evers' widow, Myrlie (Whoopi Goldberg), thinks she has evidence to finally convict him. Sign up here. . In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. |, October 9, 2005 De La Beckwith has a shifty, squirmy hatefulness; being a racist isa source of great entertainment to him, and he expresses his ideas with glee.We detest the character from beginning to end, but we react to it; the movie'sother characters are more emblems than people. But true as it is, Reiner’s film feels like the Hollywood version. Theemotional center of the film should probably be Myrlie Evers (Whoopi Goldberg),who cradled her bleeding husband as he died that night, her weeping andfrightened children around her. All rights reserved. “This story is true,” reads an opening title in “Ghosts of Mississippi,” Rob Reiner’s self-important new drama. Ghosts of Mississippi sets its hectoring tone with an opening montage of images from African-American history, from slave-ship miseries to life in the tinderbox South of the 1960s. Imagine a woman lovin' a man so much. There are several reasons this film is a success; one of them are the performances. | Rating: 3/4 VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man is shot and we see blood running from his mouth and some blood on his shirt. The movie centers on a courageous assistant district attorney, Bobby DeLaughter, who faces an uphill battle to bring Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods) back to trial after three decades. With Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg, Virginia Madsen. And it's especially evident in this case, as both play stoic central characters in a larger ensemble. That'spartly Goldberg's fault (this is not one of her better performances) but mostlythe fault of the filmmakers, who see their material through white eyes and usethe Myrlie character as a convenient conscience. Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Thisis a moving story, but it's not a particularly compelling one in “Ghosts ofMississippi,” which plays like a TV docudrama and doesn't generate theemotional intensity of such similar films as “Mississippi Burning” and “A Time To Kill.” Maybe it focuses on the wrong characters. But that filmpaid its way with great performances and tremendously moving drama. “Ghosts ofMississippi” generates nowhere near as much passion. The story takes place in 1990 and is about the third re-trial of the man accused of killing civil right leader Medger Evers in the 1960's. “The Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996), directed by Rob Reiner is the film that raises a number of socially important issues as well as personal tragedies the main characters of the film encounter in the course of their life. Whoopi Goldberg, remains one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood and was just amazing here. As I'll touch more upon later, this film does indeed have its high points, with one of those high points being the opening and first act, which is so slickly-crafted and resonant, with intrigue and entertainment that establishes some pretty high promises for this film to live up to. 1996, Drama/History, 2h 10m. A dead body is seen in an exhumed casket. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Myrlie Evers functions as aconscience who is usually off-screen. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Ghosts of Mississippi: The Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron De La Beckwith, and the Haunting of the New South at Amazon.com. Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. Coming Soon. Justice was finally served, to the relief (and amazement) of MyrlieEvers, Medgar's widow, who sought all that time to bring her husband's killerback into a courtroom. Very Good experience in Mississippi. and the Terms and Policies, Rob Reiner is heading back to the courtroom, as well as Mississippi along the way, y'all, only this time, he doesn't have Jack Nicholson "standing by him", though it's not you should worry too much, because Reiner at least got an equally effective dirtbag, and it's not Kathy Bates. This movie, like many others, is really about whiteredemption. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The city has been kept afloat with government spending but it could use a few Fortune 500 companies downtown to anchor the city. Themovie's most convincing character is De La Beckwith, the old racist, who ismade by that splendid actor James Woods into a vile, damaged man. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Ghosts of Mississippi [VHS] at Amazon.com. In this film based on actual events, black activist Medgar Evers (James Pickens Jr.) is murdered in 1963, and much of the evidence points toward white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods). In THE GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI, justice is sought through the court system after a civil rights leader is slain in the 1960s and the accused killer goes free after two hung juries. Check out the exclusive TVGuide.com movie review and see our movie rating for Ghosts Of Mississippi Join / Sign Up Keep track of your favorite shows and movies, across all your devices. Ghosts of Mississippi is a drama covering the final trial of the assassin, Bryon De La Beckwith, of the 60s civil rights leader Medgar Evers. This is a top notch, historically accurate drama that every history buff needs to see. The movie begins with the murder on June 12, 1963 and the events surrounding the two initial trials which both ended in hung juries. Ghosts of Mississippi: The Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron De La Beckwith, and the Haunting of the New South is Maryanne Vollers’s nonfiction account of a true crime story with far-reaching social, legal, and political ramifications for Mississippi and the country at large. A man named Byron De La Beckwith wascharged with the crime, but went free after two all-white juries reacheddeadlocks. Whether it's because he's just too much of a liberal or because he simply went too far, director Rob Reiner is the true culprit behind this film's overambition, being all too aware of the weight of this subject matter, which of course isn't entirely a bad thing, because with awkward desperation to get things just right comes inspiration, which finds itself tainted by overambition, yet potent enough to keep the film charming, when not genuinely resonant when it most has to be. Cinemark When We Were Colored,” which portrayed a self-sufficient black southerncommunity that had its own worth and reality apart from white society. Alan Parker's “Mississippi Burning” (1983) was criticized formaking white FBI agents into heroes of the civil rights era when the real FBIwas conspicuous by its lack of enthusiasm for that assignment. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. AlthoughDe La Beckwith was clearly the killer, at that time and place he was impossibleto convict; there is an obvious parallel with the O.J. Shortly thereafter, the film slips into a body that doesn't totally dismiss much of the feel of the initial beats of the film, and that is both why this film nearly achieves the goodness it started off having and why this film fails to achieve the goodness it started off having, as there is only so much rise and fall to this film's structure, thus momentum dwindles, little by little, before finally sputtering out, certainly not to where you fall out of the film, but certainly to where you'll find yourself checking your watch and the film wander around for far too long, until it finally finds itself unable to achieve those promises established by its strong early moments. The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train, Best Netflix Shows and Series To Binge (March 2021), The 100 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now (March 2021), 100 Best Movies on Amazon Prime To Watch (March 2021). In the state ofMississippi, that's not where you want to be.” Old-timers use revealing word choices,referring to Evers as “the civil rights leader that got himself shot.” All ofthat is well done, but where are the black people? 30 Reviews 5,000+ Ratings What to know Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. | Top Critics (12) But that filmpaid its way with great performances and tremendously moving drama. The thematic and tonal overbearingness of this film isn't too terribly intense, nor is it even all that frequent, yet it is there, and more prominent than it should be, thus the story finds itself hurt by a limiting of subtlety, made all the worse by the story's being structured, albeit reasonably well, though not quite with too many layers. However, after two trials, De La Beckwith is acquitted twice by a jury of whites. To close this case, the film all too often slips out of subtlety into a bit of thematic and even tonal overbearingness, made all the worse by only so many tonal and beat layers to this story, which all too often meanders along, and with excessive length bringing this more to attention, the film finds itself without enough steam to reward, yet still with enough steam to get by, as Lewis Colick delivers on generally fine dialogue and quite a few moments of true pick-up in the story structure, made all the sharper by James Woods' particularly show-stealing performance, Alec Baldwin's engaging lead performance and moments of true effectiveness within Rob Reiner's overambitious yet inspired direction, which occasionally turns in a moving moment, and consistently turns in enough charm and entertainment value to make "Ghosts of Mississippi" (Seriously, I'm digging that title) an enjoyable effort, even if it is one that stands to deliver more on what it promises. | Rating: C- | Rating: C+ Just confirm how you got your ticket. Allof this is remembered with fidelity in Rob Reiner's “Ghosts of Mississippi,”which tells the story of how a white prosecutor named Bobby DeLaughterre-opened the case in 1989 and eventually won a conviction against De LaBeckwith, who had spent the intervening years all but openly boasting about thekilling. Ghosts of Mississippi is told from the wrong perspective as it is the story of a prominent member of the African-American community finally getting justice when the white man responsible for committing a racially motivated murder is put away for life. A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white racist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader. Woods goesfor broke. Other black characters are found mostlyin crowd scenes. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. A boy has a bloody nose after a fistfight. The movie begins with the murder on June 12, 1963 and the events surrounding the two initial trials which both ended in hung juries. Is it ever too late to do the right thing? Okay, I joke, but Woods has been around, it's just that no one notice because his streak of films that a few good men-I mean, few people were actually going to see didn't end with this film, which I guess isn't too much of a shame, seeing as how his streak of decent films that few people were actually going to see was pretty much on its way out with this film. Goldberg was flawless in her role. So yeah, this film definately isn't "A Few Good Men", or at least not as far as financial success is concerned, and whether you can handle it or not, that's the truth, something that I'd imagine Rob Reiner doesn't have too much trouble handling by now, as I'd imagine he's gotten used to financial disappoints with his films from this production on, and it helps that, with "Stand by Me", "The Princess Bride", "Misery", "A Few Good Men" and relatively more recent financial fluke "The Bucket List", he's pretty much set as far as money is concerned, as his political part will tell you. This is one of my favorite historical movies ever made. ''Ghosts of Mississippi'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. I wish he'd stick to roles like this instead of trying to be funny, because he's not funny. Woods is great as usual as a racist redneck. 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