In the Electric Mist

It's been thirteen years since we've seen James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux on the screen, the last time being portrayed by Alec Baldwin in HEAVEN'S PRISONERS. This is notable as Baldwin also at one time portrayed Ton Clancy's Jack Ryan, a role Harrison Ford later owned and poor Ben Affleck bastardized through no necessary fault of his own. In this case the ever great Tommy Lee Jones steps into the Robicheaux skin and owns it. I love to see Jones being a cantankerous, foul mouthed shit kickin' son of a bitch and here he does lots of that. May be a little preachy on the whole AA business but it's true to Burke's creation. An odd choice of director bringing in French film maker Bertrand Tavernier to pilot this story of the South but he does a straight forward job suitable to the material and these two things may have much to do why nobody seems to have heard of this picture. It's an onward and forward no nonsense piece of work and perhaps the big studios just don't want to put such material on the big screen as they feel it can't compete with the latest brainless blow everything to hell epic. Thinks this is a small picture? As mentioned, Jones is in the lead but he is backed by the likes of John Goodman (excellent as a local celeb scum bucket), Ned Beatty, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Mary Steenbergen and Peter Sarsgaard who seems to be popping up all over the place these days. We are also treated to appearances from music legends Buddy Guy and Levon Helm. A good, basic cop thriller with a nice little twist and well worth looking for at your local.