South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000)

The movie starts off great with random scenes like a burning weed or a guy shooting a guy on the projector screen. This all goes with the story later on. The music consist of words and moaning along with a depressing violin and a piano. The plot is about Valentine Casey (Dwight Yoakam) a guy who has a girlfriend and lives in a town that feels empty. Then his step brother or old friend (Vince Vahn) or whatever and some other guys (Mr. Noodle) and (PeeWee Herman) come and kill his girlfriend because they're mad at Valentine for something. Then the movie goes to a fat guy who comes to some outlaw Mexican guy in a wooden box who at the time is licking a boob through a hole. Then they kill the fat guy. Then it goes back to Casey who gets with another lady (Jane Fonda). Who later on gets raped by Mr. Noodle and Peewee Herman but gets away by smashing Mr. Noodles balls with a lamp. Then it goes to some blonde guy wearing a hat(Billy Bob Thorton)and some other guy (James Fonda) who both get killed by Vince Vahn because he doesn't like them? Finally Valentine has a gunfight with his old friend or something Vince Vahn. And after a couple dumb scenes Valetine puts dynamite on Vince Vahn whose riding a horse and blows up. The End.

South Of Heaven Looks Terrific. All of the production department did great work on this picture. The Director of Photography was James Glennon and he and his camera department crew shot a beautiful western movie in Arizona locations and western towns. His exteriors look like a big movie and his interiors are beautifully lit. Le Dawson was the costume designer, Production Designer was Siobhan Roome, Lee Ross worked as Art Director, Bart, Dennis Dion and their team did the Special Effects. The entire crew were all top talents. The Audio Recording crew did such good work on location sound recording that there was no need for re-recording dialogue. Enjoy how wonderful all the scenes just look like such a good looking big motion picture and all produced on a limited budget. Enjoy it. Top cast as well.

Yet I finished it. Makes me wonder why some of the pro actors, some of whom are friends with Mr. Yoakum, didn't bother to suggest to him, "Uh, Dwight, you can't write or act and you have not a clue what it is you are doing." Is it a matter of the actors and others involved not wanting to hurt Yoakum's feelings? Were some involved looking for a paycheck? Maybe there's a code involved in movie making; e.g. don't mess with someone else's vision. I'm wondering if it isn't possible that its difficult for those involved to read how well filming is "clicking", such that no one wants to predict the outcome. On the other hand, I cannot imagine Thorton, Vaughn and dad and daughter Fonda not being consciously aware of how bad things are going.I'm trying hard not to be sarcastic but this film was simply excruciating to watch. Truly, TRULY don't waste your time, not even for a laugh. NOTE: I save the "one star" rating for films that are offensive. If there's one good thing about SOH,WOH, its that it doesn't descend to that level.

I've heard it said that Vince Vaughn described this as the "punk rock of Westerns" or some such. If by that he meant the bad punk rock that's just mindless incoherent noise, well, he's spot on.The way I envision this falling together, Yoakam and some of his wacky buddies were sitting around, under the influence of a foreign substance, realized they all had a coupla days to kill and decided to shoot a movie. He decided that he'd always wanted to make out with Bridget Fonda, so took a chance and wrote her totally pointless character into the script. Since she's not exactly had a full plate the last decade or so, she jumped at the chance for a paycheck even if it meant, you know, kissing someone who looks like Dwight Yoakam. They gathered up a bunch more weirdos to round out the cast, a cinematographer who's not half bad, and made themselves a movie. A terrible, terrible movie.IMDb readers, please believe me. The 10-star reviews here are just "jokers" who are trying to trick you into seeing this film for their own perverse pleasure. The people ascribing a deep inner meaning are like the art snobs who enjoy telling you why a painting done to look exactly like one your 3-year-old would do is ACTUALLY much more important and valuable than a painting done by your 3-year-old. Don't let them win. There's NOTHING worth seeing here (other than the always lovely Bridget Fonda. But seriously, just go to her entry and look at some of the photos. The acting is comperable.) This isn't a "so bad it's good campy fun" sorta flick. It's JUST PLAIN BAD.