Jesse might’ve been well intentioned, and certainly a passionate project for the writers and director, but the outcome was a spotty script, subpar acting and an all around boring film not worth the time, energy or money. The DVD also is less than desirable with an average video, substandard audio and basically no special features.
Jesse
(2011)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Crime, Drama
Arc Entertainment | R – 96 min. – $20.99 | August 12, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Fred Carpenter Writer(s): Fred Carpenter, Paul Regina, Joanne Tamburro (story), Fred Carpenter & Joanne Tamburro (screenplay) Cast: Stephanie Finochio, William Forsythe, Armand Assante, Eric Roberts, Anthony Trentacosta, Paul Vario DISC INFO: Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0) |
PLOT SUMMARY
WARNING: This portion contains major plot spoilers…
(Outline copied from the back cover): Jesse (STEPHANIE FINOCHIO) is a troubled cop who copes with her unlucky past by drinking too much. When her brother (MITCHELL WALTERS) gets involved with some Mafia lowlifes and is “murdered” (well, his foot is found, thus the inept cops thought he was dead), Jesse investigates and finds herself drawn into a world of crime, corruption, and violence. An understanding bartender (ERIC ROBERTS), Internal Affairs detective (ARMAND ASSANTE), and all-powerful Godfather (WILLIAM FORSYTHE) are pulling her in different directions (well, not really, this is misleading), but she stays focused on bringing the criminals responsible for her brother’s “murder” to justice.
But after her mother (TAMARA MARKOWITZ) is savagely beaten, Jesse takes to the streets with a sawed-off shotgun (sounds more badass than it was), and dispatches those responsible with exquisite precision.
QUICK HIT REVIEW – ZERO/5
This movie is bad. There, not much more to say… Ok, first, the screenplay and overall dialogue was awful, the plot is a jumbled mess and the acting is at best spotty, save maybe for William Forsythe, though he’s only in the movie for maybe 5-minutes, as are the other two recognizable faces: Eric Roberts appearing in two scenes totaling maybe a 2-3 minutes and Armand Assante is in a whole single scene which could’ve been completely cut and never been missed; hell, there’s a good 30-minutes that could’ve been scrapped. I suspect Roberts and Assante came in as a favor since the pair would appear in co-writer/director Fred Carpenter’s follow-up.
Filmed in 2011, Jesse sat on the shelf for 3+ years when for some reason Arc Entertainment took a gamble and will be forgettable filler on the shelves at Wal-Mart or the warehouse at whatever location Amazon.com gets these from. Basically, don’t bother with this film which, beyond the inane plot and writer, is often a bore and a lead actress, who isn’t terrible, can’t overcome the shortcomings.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5
This release does come with a slip cover, the front image of which makes this look like a far more professional looking movie than it actually was. Inside is a redemption code for the Vudu Digital Copy. The disc itself only contains the movie’s trailer (1:16).
VIDEO – 2.5/5 | AUDIO – 2.0/5
The movie is presented with a 16×9 enhanced transfer and although there are the usual traps of a standard def release (artifacts mainly), plus it’s overly bright and has the cheap, DTV, feel to it.
Despite the back cover stating this has a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, what we get instead is a basic stereo soundtrack which is terrible, though not so much the transfer but on-location issues where dialogue is either indiscernible or in a couple instances, non-existence, which I don’t think was the director’s intentions.
OVERALL – ZERO/5
Overall, Jesse might’ve been well intentioned, and certainly a passionate project for the writers and director, but the outcome was a spotty script, subpar acting and an all around boring film not worth the time, energy or money. The DVD also is less than desirable with an average video, substandard audio and basically no special features.
Published: 08/09/2014
You didn’t see the movie I just viewed! The acting was sensational Anthony Trentacosta and Mitchell Walters were really good as was the rest of the cast. The Story and the surprise ending worked and the Humor in JESSE was very funny, Tamara Markowitz was a Hoot!. JESSE a Low Budget Indie film was Very Entertaining!