Audience Member
A seriously disappointing film to a classic coming-of-age story. The direction of this sequel to The Last Picture Show is poor. Duane is now in the oil industry but is struggling financially with Ruth working for him, his family a mess and his high school love, Jacy, back in town, it seemed like a good premise. However, the whole film becomes a ridiculous soap opera concerning this person sleeping with this person, this person getting married, Duane's son having affairs and children here and there. It becomes so stupid and bogged down in all this. Then Shepard's Jacy is back and is always talking to Diane's current wife about something and is kind of interested in getting back together with Duane, but in the end this story beat goes nowhere. Bottoms' Sonny has been relegated to side because the actor's career did not take off compared to Bridges in the intervening years. The film's serious scenes are scant in favour of ridiculous set pieces; eggs being thrown, women always crying about their relationships and a float parade. Overall, the film is directional mess with very few redeeming features.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
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Audience Member
Such a collection of great stars in such a crappy movie. Slow, going nowhere, no plot, forget this one
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
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steve d
A worthy sequel to the classic original with some great performances.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
One of Peter Bogdanovich's earliest successes was adapting the novel "The Last Picture Show" into a very good coming of age film in the New Hollywood era. Years later he and many of the original cast returned to adapt the sequel to that book, "Texasville." It is not as cohesive a story, it meanders too much with no real focus or theme (other than mid-life crises and everyone being an adulterer I guess)...and it just isn't that good really, despite some great performances. Bridges is great, Shepherd is good...Annie Potts is really good in this (she is really an underrated actress)...I just never connected with this one. It felt very average, even without the comparison to the first film, this just felt like a movie with no purpose.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
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 does 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.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This long-awaited sequel to the famous film, The Last Picture Show can be summed up in numerous ways. Whether it be funny, depressing, insightful, overlong or ultimately enjoyable (among many other virtues), there is much one may take from it. As most original cast members from the first film (sans Ellen Burstyn and a few others) unite to continue the beloved story, most will find this one a viewing treat...though some lengthy, somewhat unnecessary segments get in the way at times.
Skipping from the 1950s to 1984, we are reunited with the main characters that were such a big deal in high school. It is now the centennial and everyone comes back to the town they remember so fondly. Things have become much grim, however as Duane (Jeff Bridges) is struggling with debt and has a large family to raise...but with the youngsters getting into constant trouble and his wife a serious alcoholic, things definitely were better in the good old days. His high school sweetheart, Jacy (a deglamorized Cybil Shepherd) comes back, however and has not had it terribly great, either. The whole town assumes they will rekindle their romance, but the spark which set things off way back when seems more nonexistent than ever now.
A film seemingly made to please fans of the legendary first installment, most should agree there is much to enjoy here and it is good to see the fine characters, though they surely are not as appealing as when they were young. Good period detail and filming locations are also done well and compensate somewhat for the film's serious overlength. Perhaps negativity is done more than necessary as the characters' everyday dilemmas are tough to watch, but it still should please most viewers. The cinematic story ends here, though some characters and the town were the subjects in three additional novels by Larry McMurtry who wrote the original novel.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
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