Texasville (1990) User Reviews

See it, but be realistic

[smatysia · 7/10 · 21 May 2005]

Some worthwhile performances here. The film does suffer from comparisons to "The Last Picture Show". That film was astonishing in its originality and has become iconic. "Texasville" neither aims so high, nor lands so hard. Nonetheless, the whole atmosphere of sadness calls to mind TLPS, as does the lack of a musical score, the only background being radios or whatever that the characters also hear. The adult characters, who were teen-agers in TLPS never seem to have grown up. At all. As Ebert said, I wonder what Sam the Lion would think of all these people. I seem to have missed all the sex going on in the '50's (OK wasn't born yet) and missed it again in the 80's. Maybe I'll catch that train SOMEDAY.

Jeff Bridges put in a great performance here, just as he always does. He never seems to play a character you don't believe. This in films as disparate as this one, "The Fabulous Baker Boys", and, say, "The Big Lebowski". Cybill Shepherd was very good and very beautiful. It probably took some amount of courage for a former model/beauty queen to take this role, that explicitly compares her middle-aged looks to her youthful pulchritude. I thought she still looked great. (But then, I'm middle-aged) Cloris Leachman showed her dramatic talent to wonderful effect. But, saving the best for last, I thought Annie Potts basically stole the show. She was gorgeous, and she so totally nailed her character. Acting doesn't get much better than this.

Anyone who liked TLPS (and that's almost everyone) should see this sequel. But don't carry into it unrealistic expectations.

Anarene, Texas 1984

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 1 June 2009]

Unless you saw Peter Bogdanovich's classic The Last Picture Show, if you even start at the beginning of Texasville you'll feel like you've walked in on the film in the middle and have to catch up. I'm not sure the film is capable of standing on its feet so to speak.

Anarene, Texas in The Last Picture Show is about the passing away of the old values that gave Texas the culture it has, the small town looks like it's about to shrivel and blow away like a tumbleweed as that film ended. But in the intervening thirty years, the town seems to have experienced a renaissance due to oil and the high prices it commands for energy. If you remember in Urban Cowboy, John Travolta leaves home and hearth in a place that looks like Anarene for a job in the Houston petrochemical industry which was booming in 1980.

But if you also remember between those years the OPEC nations let loose a glut of oil on the world market which drove the price down worldwide. The bank that Jeff Bridges is now the head of is caught in a nice financial squeeze investing in some wells locally that better produce and soon. Sad to say that's another historical point that might even get lost on an audience 25 years later.

Still of the half a dozen or so cast members who repeated their roles from The Last Picture Show in Texasville, materially Bridges has made out the best. But he's also got a wife in Annie Potts who's bored with the marriage, half a dozen kids, including William McNamara who's having sex with half the women in the town. Just a chip off the old block. Bridges facing financial ruin just about caps things off for the Jackson family.

Cybill Shepherd the teen dream queen of the Fifties went to Europe and became an actress, but whose marriage to a continental fizzled and a son died. Rich and somewhat dissipated, she's just back to her roots.

Timothy Bottoms the other half of the running backs from the high school with Bridges has not done really well. He owns a greasy spoon eatery and he's getting by. But he's struck with a mysterious malady which could be anything from a brain tumor to early onset Alzheimer's. We never really find out in Texasville.

Texasville has ambitions to be a character study like Long Day's Journey Into Night and these people are interesting though not the same league as the Tyrone family. But the film, interesting in spots though it is, relies too much on its roots from The Last Picture Show to stand on its own.

Small town, big problems

[lib-4 · 7/10 · 14 April 1999]

Since nothing could be as good as last picture show- I am glad this took a turn to comedy- Duane is a mess- he says things to his wife like " I'd like you to wear something I didn't have to read" . But Annie Potts is great as his sassy wife. I was a little disappointed by Cybill Shepherd's character-- I thought Jacy would grow up more spunky-- but Cloris Leachman matured nicely in her character... I was most confused by what happened to Sonny-- he truly did get tired in the head.... but the sub-plots of the stud son, the daughter who went on a honeymoon every time she met a boy and the twins tricks keep the film moving... but its no equal to the original story of the Texas town immortalized in Last Picture Show.

You wouldn't believe how this country's changed.

[golden_hawk · 25 February 2017]

In a shot echoing/contrasting with the opening of 1971's The Last Picture Show, Texasville (shot 19 - and set 30 - years later) opens with a television antenna pointing up towards the sky - a sign of changing times which lays the foundation for what's about to follow.

In a sense, the death of film/filmgoing as depicted in its much- lauded predecessor, comes to match a sense of loss experienced by the main characters in Texasville - the loss of an empire (Duane), of a son (Jacy), of his mind (Sonny). A more ethereal but equally engulfing sense of collective loss - which is to remain largely inscrutable to us - shapes character and diegesis all the way through. As a result, Texasville doesn't merely depict these people as they move into (and past) middle life - it strives to point out how this emptiness that afflicts them has fallen over them and cast a giant shadow over their lives.

This change is in the basis of the radical aesthetic departure put forth in the film. Whereas the original film took place in a world of silence, dread and melancholy, Texasville perseveres in a state of faux exhilaration, as if the characters are afraid to be left alone with their thoughts and feelings. The sad, introspective country music plays on, but nobody listens to it anymore - that is, nobody other than Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms). More so than before, the past is best left forgotten - and Sonny's inability to let it go is precisely what costs him the drive to live his life, as well as the possibility to lead his own narrative.

Promoted to a leading position, Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) now molds the plot and supplies it with a subjective viewpoint, which results in a great many things left unseen and unsaid. These gaps are deliberate and feel deliberate, with numerous significant developments left off-screen - always in capacities where Duane feels completely at a loss (most notably his wife's relationship with Jacy), only reaching a degree of clarity at the end, once our lead has sorted out part of his problems - and positively dealt with his crippling midlife crisis.

In plain contrast to the original film, Texasville has a very caustic and witty tone, the reason for which is twofold. For one thing, we're accompanying a set of characters (as mentioned, fronted by Duane himself) who no longer believe in themselves and whose past assuredness has been disfigured by a life of self-confessed failures - a need for empathy has devolved into a tragicomic existence, and Bogdanovich has framed it accordingly. The other reason for a shift relates to the evolving spirit of the times, which takes us back to the opening shot and the overriding theme in the film - whereas the existence of the characters in Picture Show mirrored the nature of the films they watched, the characters in Texasville echo the sitcom-like sensibilities of TV. Duane's family comes as the prime example of this trait, but just about every other character in the film seems willing to flirt with the seemingly vacant, raunchy, comedic sensibilities Bogdanovich knowingly imbues his film with.

Unsurprisingly, only Sonny seems like he's orbiting around the narrative as though he belongs in a whole different film - perhaps somewhere in-between the landscapes of Picture Show and the wild shenanigans of Texasville. Bottoms' sensitive performance is flawless in terms of physicality and internal probing but he really knocks it out of the park in how he tackles the concept on which the entire aesthetic of the film - a comedy with an unspoken tragic undercurrent - is built. Bridges is entirely convincing throughout and never less than splendid in his ability to hint at the sorts of feelings his character is going through but unable to deal with (or even to understand). Cybill Shepherd is more convincing than in the original film, but the third real standout here is Annie Potts as Duane's wife Karla, who is an impeccable match for the material - uncovering a quiet dignity in her role, slipping in a variety of small, inward touches within the bigger/louder demands of her role in the picture.

Bogdanovich does a wonderful job throughout, his camera lingering intuitively on his characters' wistful gazes (usually to punctuate the ending of a scene), carrying his vision through a sinuous, meandering story which - barring the very end where a key development brings all characters together - never truly coalesces into anything resembling dramatic momentum. One of the best things about the film is precisely how it eschews average plot progressions (which seems rather in keeping with a set of characters who run around without ever getting anywhere special) and challenges our expectations of what may be in store for these people. In a crucial and frankly satisfying development that comes to challenge our expectations behind the entire film, Jacy doesn't ever even seem to consider a romantic reunion with Duane - instead developing a growing affection for his dog, his family and finally his wife, much to his bewilderment.

At the end of the day, while it may not be as breathtakingly well crafted as Picture Show, that's just not what this film was aiming for. In a sense, no film with this design could ever hope to achieve perfection in the sense that its predecessor damn nearly attained. Texasville has very different prospects in mind; it wants time and place to dictate form as well as content; it wants to bristle with ideas and all sorts of social, human, psychological insights; it wants to convey how the death of film came to affect a small town in Texas, and how television changed the landscape of narrative as we know it. What it strives for, it achieves with resounding success. Like Picture Show before it, Texasville is a masterpiece of filmmaking, only of a completely different - and far more inscrutable - variety.

Decent, but not great

[swtweath2 · 6/10 · 16 January 2007]

Having never had the patience or the time of sitting through The Last Picture Show, I picked this movie up on a whim. I had seen once several years ago with my family and remembered it as being OK. For some unknown reason, I came across it at Amazon.com and decided to order it to watch it again. The second time I watched it, I enjoyed it, but some of the nuances of the movie seemed to be lacking. I suppose if I had seen the original movie I might have had more of an idea of what some of the plot twists meant. Annie Potts is at her best here playing the wife of the main character. Cybill Shepherd's character (Jaycee) while having just suffered the loss of a child seemed even more emotionless than one would expect after sustaining such a loss. I did enjoy the location of the movie (Texas) and the craziness of small town living.

Overall the ensemble cast is decent, but the movie is somewhat long and tends to drag. There's also not much resolution at the end which disappointed me (I liked my movies to end with a nice wrap up or a decent "pull-together" at the end). If you enjoy any of the actors, it's worth watching.

6/10

Not up to par.

[dixie-18 · 7/10 · 5 March 2004]

Very few sequels are worth watching. The Godfather Part II is the only one I can think of that is worth a dime. Like many sequels, Texasville should never have been made. When film reaches the heights of The Last Picture Show, any attempt to re-capture the magic is doomed to failure. I awaited the release of Texasville with great anticipation, but what followed was a great disappointment. The Last Picture Show is one of the 10 best films ever made. Texasville is not one of the best 1000. When Sam the Lion died, the whole town went down hill anyway.

The failure of life of a rich man in Texas

[esteban1747 · 7/10 · 21 May 2002]

Interesting film, it seems that is a real life where everybody does more or less what he/she wants. Jeff Bridges is a rich man, but near to bankruptcy due to many debts, married to a very nice lady (Annie Potts, whom it would have been much better to keep her than to look at others less beautiful than her)with several sons and daughters, living in a large house where everybody did what he/she wanted and were all somewhat hysteric. Bridges tried to escape and to behave like a bee smelling each flower he finds around, some of them wives of his supposed friends. Suddenly a former classmate of Bridges, the actress Jacy Farrow, arrives in the town and starts looking at Bridges asking him for love and sex. It is difficult to understand how his wife (Annie Potts) accepted all this relationship. She could have been the most smartly developed woman of the world, but to accept his husband playing with another woman candidate, it is only seen in films. The end of the film does not give any solution to the problem, but puts the things how really are in the modern society.

very, very poor

[Doogie D · 3/10 · 27 April 1999]

I'm not a fellow who has any position to take on sequels or remakes; some are good, some are not -- simple as that. So when I express profound disappointment at this, it's not out of reactionary indignation that the film doesn't meet whatever needs or expectancies I have; it's simply a lousy movie.

It's difficult to believe that TEXASVILLE shares the same pedigree as THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. Where PICTURE SHOW is humane, this is almost nihilistic; the humans are props on which cardboard foibles are hung. (For further insult, we are expected to ride along and laugh at the various infidelities and episodes of arrested adolescence, as if these things were charming and acceptable.) The story whiffs of the first draft, desperately needing revision and clearer thinking; that "more more more" means everyone in the film has their schtick, and no one ever gets fleshed out beyond that. And some of it is awfully bad. Larry... Peter... what in the world were you thinking of wrote Timothy Bottoms' character like so? No doubt, he could have had problems, but this is as bad as junior high school poetry.

Good sequel to The Last Picture Show

[grantss · 8/10 · 4 July 2015]

Good sequel to the superb The Last Picture Show, also directed by Peter Bogdanovich, 19 years earlier. Whereas The Last Picture Show dealt with the decline of small-town America, Texasville shows it still exists, but barely. Focuses on the lives of several middle- aged people, mostly the main characters from The Last Picture Show, and how their hopes and dreams have faded and reality is less pleasant.

The feeling of nostalgia, of tedium, of lives going nowhere, yet hope within that emptiness, is tangible. Among this drama, there is great humour, however.

Superb performances all round. This role was probably the one that turned Jeff Bridges into the downtrodden, bedraggled anti-hero, and launched countless roles for home. Cybill Shepherd is solid as Jacy. Next to Bridges, the star turn belongs to Annie Potts who is simultaneously beautiful, funny, sassy and intelligent as Karla.

Ultimately doesn't really make as big an impression as The Last Picture Show, and sort of fizzles out towards the end. The destination is quite tame, but the journey is worth taking.

A rather disappointing film

[GusF · 6/10 · 5 January 2016]

Based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry, this is a rather disappointing film. It was quite a good idea to make a sequel to the excellent "The Last Picture Show" but Peter Bogdanovich set the bar too high for himself and is unable to replicate its success. The original film was an often moving and occasionally depressing elegy to the bleak, desolate little town of Anarene, Texas which had been slowly dying for years and its inhabitants' sad, unfulfilled lives of wasted potential. The people of Anarene's lives are no more fulfilled in 1984 than they were in 1951 but it is not presented anywhere near as effectively. On the bright side, Bogdanovich's direction is good but his writing is not up to much.

Eight actors from "The Last Picture Show" reprise their roles, most notably Jeff Bridges as Duane Jackson and Cybill Shepherd as Jacy Farrow. Bridges is a wonderful actor and it is unsurprising that he returned to the role that nabbed him his first Oscar nomination at only 22 but the material let him down. Shepherd is not any not on his level but she is still good even though she has the same problem as regards the material. Sonny Crawford was the heart and soul of "The Last Picture Show" so it is a major disappointment that Timothy Bottoms has what amounts to little more than a minor supporting role. Obviously, this is because Bottoms' career did not take off in the same manner as Bridges and Shepherd's did after the earlier film but it was still irritating.

On the other hand, the more famous but less talented Randy Quaid has a somewhat larger supporting role as Lester Marlow, a character who only had a few scenes in the original film. I can't say that I had much interest in his financial or marital problems. I fail to see why Bogdanovich brought back actresses of the calibre of Eileen Brennan as Genevieve and Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper when they barely have any screen time. The only newcomer who particularly stood out was the always excellent Annie Potts as Duane's wife Karla. In the first film, Ellen Burstyn gave the best performance as Lois Farrow and I think that she rather than Leachman deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar so it was very disappointing that she did not return.

Sex and affairs played a major role in the first film but, on this occasion, I practically needed a flowchart to keep track of all the affairs, if so far as I really cared. In contrast to that film, they take place mostly in the background and only a few really have any impact on the plot. This film takes place in the summer of 1984 and it does a good job of capturing the zeitgeist of the period with its references to Walter Mondale running against Ronald Reagan in the US presidential election, the Soviet Union boycotting the LA Olympics and "Material Girl" and "Karma Chameleon" playing on the radio. Of the many references to "The Last Picture Show", my favourite was one of the simplest: the framed photo of Sam the Lion and Billy in Sonny's store.

Overall, this is certainly a disappointing film but I am still glad that I watched it as there are some nice performances and I always like revisiting characters after many years to see what has become of them. To that end, I would like a third film but I really don't see it happening.

Depressing, frustrating, self-indulgent, sentimental. Just bad

[hhfarm-1 · 3/10 · 6 May 2006]

Imagine that someone wrote a 1-hour dialoque for each of 10-20 characters and had them recite each part separately; but then edited it all together. Sound like a bad play? Yup.

This is really about wallowing in the self-pity of middle age. The characters talk at each other but rarely connect or even interact. It's all about mouthing cheap lines.

Bridges and all of his kids and all of his grandkids are horrible. His wife (Annie Potts) is the only slightly bright spot in the movie (actress and character).

All of the main characters are in the midst of a crisis. Bridges teenage son is banging some of the married women - wives of his dad's friends. One wants to marry him; another is pregnant; another (or one of these two buys him a Porsche. Part way through the son he elopes and marries his trashy girlfriend; then he files for divorce after fighting with her.

I think that Bogdanovich wanted this to be an examination of the pain of living: birth, death, disappointment, craziness, losing wealth - all the big issues. Instead it's just a poorly storied and acted soap opera.

Don't waste your time.

Skillfully Made for Those Who can Appreciate It

[wilster-4 · 9/10 · 2 May 2005]

On first viewing I would have voted a 5. But something stuck with me and I've watched the movie - studied the movie - about 8 or 9 times now ... in three weeks. Texasville is brilliant. True to 80s American oil country livin', wonderfully shot to capture big-sky light, and so full of detail one or two or even three viewings are not enough. I'd say the density of nuance is easily twice the standard movie average. That many will dislike this movie is not surprising. Contrary to first impressions, Texasville is not popular culture. As a cut above, this movie will fly right on by most viewers - particularly those many who will not or cannot relate to anything in it. But for those of us who've lived some Texasville ... many thanks are owed Peter, Larry, Cybil, Jeff and the rest.

don't bother

[rupie · 3/10 · 24 June 1999]

I haven't seen the legendary "Last Picture Show', to which this is supposed to be a 30-years-later sequel, but it couldn't have been as bad as this. A bunch of not very likable people (except for Bridges' character, who has a charming and weather-beaten kind of savoir faire) wander around aimlessly, seducing each other's spouses (which somehow never seems to get anyone really upset) and mouthing inanities about how miserable they are. After 2 hours of this ennui, it ends abruptly with no kind of closure; everybody just goes to breakfast together. Bridges and Leachman do a good job but they can't rescue the leaden script. About the only thing the film does well is capture the flavor and atmosphere of rural Texas during its economic crunch of the early 80's.

I love this movie.

[emilyss · 6 November 1999]

Sometimes I actually think I like it better than THE LAST PICTURE SHOW but that's only now, after having seen TEXASVILLE, oh, fifteen, twenty times.

It's too easy to blow this movie off as being strange and not making sense -- I see that as its strength; it's *real*. It's oddly real, it's real in a way that most movies aren't; nothing ties up, there's no plot arc, people don't do what they're supposed to. But if you watch it as evidence of McMurtry's genius characterization, you'll see that the people in this film are tremendously human, and weird and flawed.

Annie Potts as Duane's wife Karla is really the standout performance in this sequel, though the rest of the principal cast from PICTURE SHOW are, IMHO, just as spectacular here. Potts adds something to the mix that allows a unique perspective on this weird little town, and, like Duane, you see her for all her flaws and you love her just for putting up with you.

And, really, is there *anything* sadder than Jacy wooing Duane's dog away?

See this film more than once before you judge it; that's all I've got to say.

One miscalculation after another

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 18 November 2006]

Director Peter Bogdanovich's failed follow-up to his critical breakthrough film, 1971's "The Last Picture Show", returns to small town Texas to catch up on the lives of those once-compelling characters. Bogdanovich, who--in a replay of the first film--also adapted Larry McMurtry's novel, is now too jaded to see much joy or dramatic irony in these surroundings, and the sterling cast he has assembled just seems disheartened. The plot, a rumination of Jeff Bridges' Duane Jackson (who is now an unhappily married oil-man dissatisfied with his job and life), doesn't built any momentum, emotional, dramatic or otherwise, and the director follows a botched pattern: one flabby, talky sequence after another. * from ****

Texasville

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 10 May 2007]

Jacy Farrow(Cybill Shepherd)returns to Texasville where she was the homecoming queen for the town's celebrated Cintennial. Automatically old feelings are bound to return, though middle age has shaped Duane Jackson(Jeff Bridges)into a man who buries most of his feelings, yet he isn't prone to conflict. This film rarely has any outbursts despite the adulteries both Duane and his wife Karla(Annie Potts)are having on the side. Their marriage is one of many things focused on in this character study which can bring a multitude of emotions thanks in part to a cast who forms complex performances to the forefront. Returning from the original are Ruth Popper(Cloris Leachman)still very much in love with Sonny(Timothy Bottoms)who is slowly losing his grip on reality seeing things from the past which aren't there to anyone but him. Ruth is under the employ of Duane whose oil business is drowning in debt. Lester(Randy Quaid)is a banker now, Genevieve(Eileen Brennan)is still around as a gal Duane and others can chit chat with. Duane has a son, Dickie(William McNamara)who frequently dates various rich older women.

Doesn't necessarily follow a plot narrative as much as the film is character-driven. We enter their lives at the Cintennial and watch as they go through the little quirky dramas. It isn't your usual drama and goes through various episodic dramas with Duane mostly at the center. What makes the film so odd is the way Duane and Karla remain together without ringing each others' necks. They know that each other jumps in and out of bed with others yet still maintain their family. Even weirder is how Jacy comes right into their lives, possibly a threat towards the marriage, yet she becomes quite good pals with Karla. Nothing operates the way you expect..I like this. I don't believe life follows a narrative thread. We all have our episodic dramas. There isn't always an exact end until we're under the grave. While the cast is very good, Annie Potts is just splendid while Bottoms as the tragic, troubled Sonny gains great sympathy for his mental plight. I just love to watch Bridges, especially when he won't reveal everything, yet when he does speak it often just makes simple sense. If you like heightened melodramas where characters scream and yell(..or, better yet, are directly confrontational), this film isn't for you.

form without a soul

[fhenry44 · 3/10 · 3 March 2002]

I have to say, I was so disappointed with this movie that I actually didn't finish it. Now, I will have to admit that it is a lot easier, for me, to not finish a movie than it is to not finish a novel, nevertheless, I just couldn't get thru this movie. And, I have just this very moment of writing this review that I think I know what it was like for me. It was like watching an extremely long 'Coming Attraction', i.e., a long series of vignettes without really ever knowing what was really going on. Let me say here that I read the trilogy ("Last Picture Show", "Texasville" and "Duane's Depressed") and will admit that I found "Texasville", the novel, frivilous but, the cinematic version took that particular novel to a new level of?, of?, apathetic boredom. I think what I am trying to say is that, while the novel was frivolus, at least I became acquainted with the persona of the characters. I thought that while I might have wished something else was happening *for* them, at least I had a sense of who they were and what their reason d'etres were. The movie was a total disappointment.

It is sad that it is very unlikely that "Duane's Depressed" will never make it to the screen but then again, if the treatment were to be similar to the treatment of "Texasville" I think I am glad. "Duane's Depressed" was by far, the most masterfully crafted of the triology.

The most misunderstood of all sequels

[J_Knox · 10/10 · 10 September 2001]

Texasville is easily one of my favorite movies of all time because it doesn't go down the easy road, trying to please everyone, by being the same movie as Last Picture Show was. However, after having seen both Picture Show and Texasville back to back I noticed how surprisingly similar in context and theme they are. Both are about sad adults who look longingly onto the younger generation, all the while committing adultery as a way of recapturing their youth. I love both Picture Show and Texasville equally; but have a soft spot for Texasville because I was 11 during the timeframe shown in the movie, and 17 when it came out in 1990 so it is a bit more relevant to me. Also the dark humor helps make the film more enjoyable for those hot summer nights when the urge hits me to see it.

I've never thought of Texasville as fiction, more as cinematic fact. It's about as close to real life as you'll get without living it yourself. It was one of the first films I saw in a theatre as a cinema "connoisseur" and it'd be a shame to let it fade into obscurity. I highly recommend it to anyone reading this, a true minor masterpiece

Jeff Bridges holds this together.

[Jakeroo · 5/10 · 4 March 1999]

Otherwise, it would be just a frenetic soap opera. Even with Bridges' effort it's not nearly as good as "...Picture Show". And the ending is so lousy - nothing is resolved, you're not sure what's gonna happen, and everybody goes off for breakfast. I gave it a 7 and that was being charitable.

casting issues

[kellytunes · 2/10 · 25 March 2007]

Although I like Annie Potts, I think she was miscast, even though she did a good job as Karla. Karla should have been a tall, Texas blonde-type. Annie got Karla's personality down, but after the book, a petite brunette just didn't fit the bill. Overall, though--Texasville was a disappointment. Movies are rarely as good as books--this I realize--but Texasville was a huge disappointment. Part of it was the period made--the late 80's and early 90's produced few good films. And Texasville, to me, felt more like an average sitcom than a movie.

To return again to the book vs movie them--I do believe a great movie can be made from a great book, especially most of Larry McMurtry's. Lonesome Dove was superb, as of course was The Last Picture Show. Perhaps the problem was that Texasville is funny, as opposed to heavy, like Picture Show. And funny is harder to do without being sitcom-like. Texasville seemed to me to be lacking balance (as a picture--the book was plenty balanced).

Fans of Cybill Shepherd & Jeff Bridges Must See this PIC!!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 4 March 2004]

After reading a book written by Cybill Shepherd entitled,"Cybill Disobedience", where she describes in detail a great deal of the behind the scenes in the making of this picture and also "The Last Picture Show". Cybill also mentions the director of this picture, Peter Bogdanovich, a very long time warm and affectionate friend. Cybill played the role as (Jacy Farrow),"The Last Picture Show",'71,along with Jeff Bridges (Duane Jackson). These two were teenage's in high school and did more than skinny dip in the lake. Jacy was a movie star who returned to her hometown after very tragic events in her life and needed the comfort from all her home town friends, especially Duane and his family, including mostly his wife. Cloris Leachman(Ruth Popper),"Never Too Late",'97, gave a great supporting role along with Eileen Brennan(Geneuieve Morgan),"Private Benjamin",'80. Peter Boganovich tried to make this picture into a masterpiece like his award winning "The Last Picture Show" and also "Targets", starring Boris Karloff, but this picture did not quite measure up to his high standards of Directing! Cybill Shepherd & Jeff Bridges great acting skills made this film worth WATCHING!

Dull!

[claude_beaudine · 3/10 · 13 January 2006]

Would the Peter Bogdanovich who make The Last Picutre Show have made this? I don't think so.

It scored a high dull rating. Maybe Peter should have got a script writer in, or taken some early advice. Peter had the cast, the location, the talent, so, how come this film came into its dullness.

The last ten minutes gave a taste for what the film should have been.

Mostly focusing on Jeff Bridges was pointless, he did his best strut, but that ain't enough to carry any film.

This film is classifed as comedy, um, someone must be laughing at us for spending money to watch this.

Wacky and Charming...Just Like Texas

[olliewim · 10/10 · 19 July 2007]

This is one of my favorite movies, because it brings me smack dab back to my four years of college in Houston. I can understand people who haven't lived in Texas thinking this movie is poor or nonsensical. I'm not even sure what it is about it, that so perfectly captures what I love about Texas and Texans, but I'll try...

First off the Dairy Queen! You have to have at least driven through a big swathe of TX to realize that every small town has a DQ, and its often more of a town nerve center than City Hall. In some places I think it IS the City Hall. That's a delicious inside joke.

Let's see...making a hobby of sitting in the hot tub, drinking vodka and shooting up the dog house. "Our steaks are in the deep freeze...we'd all be so drunk by the time they thawed out, no tellin' who'd get shot!"

Lester getting suicidal, then springing himself from "the quiet room" to go help look for the old man that fell out of the car, when he tried to spit out his tobacco.

Um, four people and a dog driving in a pickup truck. Voluntarily. (OK two of them were the tweeny twins, but still.)

I don't know about all of the sleeping around, but all of the moving around (Karla and kids at Jacy's, Jacy at Karla and Duane's, Mary Lou and Jacy taking road trips with Duane just for the hell of it)...so many of the native Texans I've known are restless to the point of ADD.

And just the wacky, emphatic but heartfelt attitude, Karla more than any of them. As others have noted, Annie Potts darn near steals the entire movie. But I thought the whole cast did well.

Do not watch this film it will only ruin the original

[littlejake4 · 19 March 2000]

Well, I want to know what the hell happened how can this movie be the sequel to the wonderful "Last Picture Show". "Picture Show" gave us an excellent story and compassionate characters. "Texasville" is awful, Cybil Shepard is so annoying as Jacy and who cares about her pathetic life now...she was a spoiled brat in "picture Show" and in this she is the same but now she is a lead character, in the "Last Picture Show" she was a side character as is Jeff Bridges character Duane. Timothy Bottoms was the star and in "Texasville" he is nothing, his story line is awful. He just wonders around with a tired head and a sad lonely life. Maybe Timothy Bottoms does do a good job looking sad, lonely and depressed I wonder why??. Sonny was so great in "Picture Show" why didn't he get a decent story?? Why is there no story in Texasville at all. The big thing is Duane is in debt and him and Jacy are in a stupid play together. I don't think they even mention that Jacy and Sonny ran off and got married or if they did mention any thing from the past it was short and sweet like the love story between sonny and cloris leachman character, Ruth Popper what happened there. She says "He loved me once" so now he stays in my trailer and she exercises all the time in the movie maybe because she once was married to a gym teacher who knows maybe somewhere there is symbolism but unfortunately I never cared enough to look. The movie has a small climax where I think Sonny might have attempted suicide well then jeff bridges suggest that they all go and get breakfast at the local DQ and everything will work out. Of course the viewer never finds out because that would have been to hard to put substance into this movie. So La DI Da it's over. I mean I know Cybil Shepard and Jeff Bridges are the most popular actors in the movie but to move so far away from the original and really just make a depressing sad little movie. Everybody is having affairs and all the kids are brats no wonder this is the most dysfunctional town in the world. I wasted two hours on this film and now I have to go rent the original to get this bad taste out of my mouth from Texasville.

Why is there no ZERO RATING FOR MOVIES LIKE THIS?

[supergenome · 1/10 · 26 September 2005]

I have seen this movie. It set a standard from which all crap movies will be measured. I can't sympathize with any of the characters. Everything seems a mishmash, a jumble agonizingly trying to wrestle it free from its asinine plot and hateful tediousness.

Jeff Bridges is perfect for this kind of crap. He with that asinine looks and gravity-loving fold around his eyes.

I felt relieved for all my transgressions. After watching this movie I think it has been punishment enough to atone for all my sins in the afterlife.

Sadly, there is no deserving afterlife for this movie and for all who are responsible for it.