Jimmy and Judy (2006)

This movie caught my attention a while ago but because of reviews I was very skeptical about watching it. The movie is a dark look at how far teens will go for their crazy definitions of love. Yes, the acting has its weak points (not so much the two leads but those surrounding them) and yes, it may go a bit over the top, but for those of us that have fallen in love as teens it may ring some bells. It chronicles a relationship from its addictive start to its overdosed finish. Many kids think they have found the one and that no one will ever understand them or love them like this person does. Its a feeling that will make you do nearly anything. While this movie may take that to a level no one ever dreamed about when they met their first boyfriend or girlfriend it does make you realize that teens are volatile, powerful, and capable of things their parents don't want to even think about. This movie takes the viewer to a dark place but take the "excessive and unnecessary" nudity as the reality of teens sex-ting and take into consideration the gore we subject ourselves to when watching Saw, you might find the meaning makes these things less of a draw back and more of a necessary evil when talking about the reality of troubled teens. Its not the end all beat all but its worth a watch.

JIMMY AND JUDY 2006 Written and Directed by Randall Rubin and Jon Schroeder (We Share Everything!) Starring Edward Furlong, Rachael Bella, William Sadler, James Eckhouse, Gay Storm and A. J. Buckley.This is the first review I've ever written that has to start out with a recommendation to see a different movie. If you see a copy of Jimmy and Judy at your local video store, don't rent it until you know if they've also got a copy of Video X. The latter film is sooooooo much better than the former.Jimmy and Judy is (shockingly!) the story of Jimmy (Edward Furlong) and Judy (Rachael Rubin). Jimmy is a pasty, pudgy 20something with a Holden Caulfieldesque sense of alienation from society. He's back at home with his Mom and Dad after being kicked out of college for videotaping his roommate's suicide. Judy is a pretty high school girl who is, for reasons never explained or defined, desperately unhappy and looking for someone to which she can cling. Jimmy's had a crush on Judy since they were kids and decides this is his moment to reach out to her, which he does by getting revenge on several other kids he sees abusing Judy one day. Judy, while initially repelled by Jimmy, eventually warms up to the only person she thinks loves her or pays attention to her. The movie spends about an hour just defining these characters and their relationship, then Judy runs over a guy with their car. T hat sets the couple on the run and down a slippery path of crime, false hope and murder. Oh, and Jimmy incessantly video tapes everything they do.This isn't a bad film so much as it is a film in conflict with its basic conceit. The movie is shot hand-held video style, with the camera being passed back and forth between Jimmy and Judy, but unlike The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, this movie won't make you motion sick. The camera work in Jimmy and Judy is much steadier and more like a traditional film than the herky-jerky visual roller-coaster of those other two. But that's a big problem. The whole point of the hand-held video stuff is to give the story a veneer of realism, a sense that something like this could really happen. But the camera movement and imagery in Jimmy and Judy is so obviously controlled and planned and managed that it ruins any sense that it's something actually happening. Instead of sucking you in, it creates a distance between you and the story. That distance, in turn, let's you see that Jimmy and Judy aren't very realistic characters. They may resemble ordinary-but-troubled folks in theory, but in practice they don't act or talk anything like real people. While Furlong and Bella both give nice performances, you can't ever forget they're performances.The second half of the movie is also problematic because it stops being about Jimmy and Judy and starts being about all these other low-life, criminal types they run into. The things that occur in the second hour of the story don't really flow out of who Jimmy and Judy are and how they relate to each other, but instead erupt when new characters enter the story and push our lovebirds in one direction or another. It's particularly noticeable when the movie suddenly morphs into a pseudo-documentary about this backwoods, drug dealing, almost-cult leader called Uncle Rodney (William Stadler).I also have to say the story gets stupider as it goes along. When it's just Jimmy and Judy in the first half, what happens mostly makes sense. When they hit the road and the terrible stuff starts happening, that's no longer the case. Characters start behaving the way the script needs them to behave, even if there's no real reason for it. There's a point in the story where Jimmy by all rights should be killed, but instead he's just beaten up a bit and allowed to live solely because the movie isn't ready to end yet.For all that, though, Jimmy and Judy isn't an aggressively bad film. Furlong and Bella are good, there's a significant amount of female nudity (including a lot of looks at Bella's bosom) and if you've ever had a bit of Holden Caulfield in you when you were young, you might emotionally connect with this story.But as I mention at the start, Video X is sooooooo much better than this film. I t's largely the same story but smarter, funnier, more shocking and more real. But if you can't get your hands on a copy of Video X, Jimmy and Judy isn't that awful as a substitute.

The trailer makes it look good, like a typical bonnie & Clyde movie.However it wants to be to much like true romance or natural born killers In the way that the two characters care for nothing but each other and would rather die than be apart.some of the camera work is a bit amateurish too. no matter how much negativity surrounds the movie. if u see the trailer you'll watch it anyway, well I would.But if u know your movies, you'll be disappointed.p.s Im only writing move because u have to write 10 lines to post, which is stupid. Also I think its typical of a cult leader to demand sex from the females in the group. I cannot believe people join these cults and believe the garbage thats drilled into them.

Jimmy and Judy,a well-made semi-remake of "Badlands" with some "Natural Born Killers" thrown in for good measure, isn't a bad time at the movies, to be sure, but also isn't near as good as it should be.I caught the world premiere of this movie at SF Indie, and I can certainly see why they picked it - edgy, counterculture, chock full of sex and violence. It's also very well acted, particularly by Furlong, and has terrific sound design. But ultimately, the film goes nowhere, with characters that neither illicit compassion nor interest, and a story which seems to meander, predictability, to a place that has nothing really to do with either Jimmy or Judy. We never really understand their "angst" the way we should. Apparently, just because they're young, sweaty, unkempt, swear and screw a lot, they get to be angry and rebellious.The one moderately original thing about the film is that Jimmy videotapes everything (this is not a spoiler - it's evident in the trailer and from frame 1 of the movie), and this is used as a narrative device ala "Blair Witch". Kinda nifty, but still, nothing else in the movie - either Furlong's character nor the story, pay this off in any way, and ultimately, it doesn't make sense.If you like angst for angst's sake, this is for you. But if you want to be engaged by story or character, you may do best to look elsewhere.