The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Grizzled Texan Tommy Lee Jones has made an exceptionally moving, surprisingly funny, often beautiful film, packed with unforgettable moments and note-perfect performances.

Making an altogether impressive big-screen directing debut, Jones exudes quiet control over this full-bodied Western, taking pleasure in his measured pacing, mixing somber authority with flashes of surrealist wit and luxuriating in the magnificent, vanishing vistas of his home state.

Tommy Lee Jones makes his feature directing debut here, and the film is as weathered, subtle, and sympathetic as the actor's own face.

Its social consciousness aside, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is really a simple love story between men set in the American West, although unlike "Brokeback Mountain," this love is purely platonic -- nothing more than the bond of brotherhood between two dear friends, a classic Western theme.

Jones and Pepper are no Eastwood and Wallach, but the fact that one even thinks to make such a comparison speaks highly of the work here.

The film's plea for old-fashioned pride and racial tolerance is muffled by a plain, unanticipated fact: Pete Perkins is out of his mind.

Oh no, another let's-drag-a-dead-body-to-Mexico flick?

Falls short of being a great western due to poorly executed non-linear storytelling and elemental directorial mistakes. The Tarantino-style cuts of the first third of the movie serve only to confuse; it feels like very raw cuts with no transition between each scene. In the last two thirds this is mostly abandoned and the movie vastly improves. There are also a couple of jarring scenes where film crew invade the shot: a camera operator blatantly visible in the reflection of a car window and a dude in a t shirt not crouched down in the jimenez scene. Despite the confusing disjointedness of the first part of the film it becomes an engaging, compelling movie during the last two-thirds.

This film is extremely unique and very enjoyable. It creates a great atmosphere and Tommy Lee Jones character is particularly intriguing. However, due to there being little in the way of action, Three Burials sometimes loses impetus and drags. Despite being a good story that is very touching in places, the film is not one that I would rush to watch again, although I do hold it in high regard and recommend it to those who do not require lots of action to enjoy a film.

One of only two directorial efforts from that of legendary actor Tommy Lee Jones thus far, "The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada" features some mildly interesting musings on redemption, reality and the road to madness, but ultimately lacks a good portion of everything else you need to craft a worthwhile story, namely decent pacing and memorable character work. There's also too much going on in this for my tastes. Certain shots, characters and even entire scenes felt out of place all too often. And what exactly was the deal with the first 40 minutes or so being non-linear? I don't exactly have an issue with it, but I also can't for the life of me find a reason why it was necessary in any way, shape or form. It didn't really add anything aside from that fleeting novelty you get when you finally realize a non-linear narrative is a non-linear narrative. And by the time you understand what's going on, it's entirely abandoned for a more traditional (and admittedly more entertaining) approach. A bit of a head-scratcher, this one, but with commendable acting, at the very least.

This is an offensively inept, amateur film with its heart in the right place. So many casual movie-goers like submediocre films like this because they're the kind of movies they'd direct themselves if they were into movies to any substantial degree, which they're not. This movie repeatedly left me dumbfounded and irate with its boundless inanity, its preadolescent writing, its loathsome attempts at humor. Despite having made this crater of a film, Tommy Lee Jones is and will continue to be a great actor and a fascinating man; this movie's spectacular awfulness falls several feet short of unforgivable.

An ugly, dirty movie. That has no purpose. It drags on and on, the movie was over 2 hours long and its about nothing! The movie was predictable, and worse of all boring!!