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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Salesrank: 8336
Released: March 3, 2009 |
| Our Price: $4.24 |
| Used Price: $0.33 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones leads an all-star cast in this psychological thriller based on the bestselling novel by James Lee Burke.
While on an investigation into a series of grisly murders, veteran detective Dave Robicheaux (Jones) navigates his way through the Louisiana bayou and the dark, sultry world of New Orleans mobster "Baby Feet" Balboni (John Goodman). Layers of corruption and long-dead secrets reawaken grudges and a lethal alliance A tangled web of killings, past and present, converges in a shocking showdown with stakes that become deeply personal to Robicheaux and his family. Featuring music from five-time GRAMMY Award-winner Buddy Guy, this film takes you deep into Cajun country's hidden worlds. *Best Supporting Actor: The Fugitive, 1993
Description of In the Electric Mist:
Based on the book series by James Lee Burke, In the Electric Mist tackles murder, mobsters, Hollywood drama… and apparitions of long-dead confederate soldiers. The film begins with Detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) investigating the murder of a young woman in his small parish town while dealing with the influx of irresponsible Hollywood star Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard). While filming a civil war epic, Elrod discovers the remains of a man killed decades earlier, a crime Dave himself witnessed but did not report. Adding to the intrigue is the appearance of ghosts from a forgotten era: confederate soldiers lead by Gen. John Bell Hood. Offering advice and direction to Dave, the specter of Hood may seem disjointed, but in Cajun country, full of real and imagined ghosts, it’s not hard to imagine. As more murders occur and secrets from the past are brought to light, will Dave succeed in stopping a vicious killer? Jones delivers a believable portrayal of a tortured, redemptive officer who must right the wrongs of the past and the present. Adding to the authenticity and beauty of this Cajun tale, five-time Grammy Award winner Buddy Guy appears and performs in the film. One final mystery still remains: will we see more of Dave Robicheaux, or will more adaptations be confined to the reader’s imagination? -- Lesley Puhrmann
Stills from In the Electric Mist (Click for larger image)
In the Electric Mist Reviews:
It leaves an Impression, Just not a Great One 
2009-12-08 - In the Electric Mist comes after Tommy Lee Jones's resurgence with No Country for Old Men and In the Valley of Elah. The storyline of the film, a sequel of sorts from 1996's Heaven's Prisoners, follows Sheriff David Robicheaux's investigation of the grisly murders of prostitutes and the shady underlings of post-Katrina Louisiana. As Robicheaux investigates the matter, he is reminded of an unsolved murder of an African-American man during segregation in the American south, which becomes closer connected to the prostitute murders. Meanwhile, Robicheaux is visited by Confederate General John Bell Hood who helps frame events, situations and occurrences into perspective. The fantasy of these meetings further influences and affects Robicheaux investigation. Erasing the usual dichotomy of good and evil, Jones' portrayal of Dave Robicheaux is complex as he is passively aggressive, occasionally violent, procedurally unethical yet likable as a family man in a vigilante sort of way.
The premise of the film entwines American's shameful past and its disingenuous claim of "change" in the present. However, the film tackles too many issues leading to the glossing over of some and the unfocused explorations or overcompensated view of others. As a detective film, it fails to proceed as one due to the many detours of racial politics and surrealist fantasy. Although the fantasy aspects are slightly interesting, a director such as David Lynch would have made these "meetings" far more lucid, surreal and polarizing. Director Alan Parker would have made a more faithful and wholehearted attempt at focusing upon the racial aspect without trivializing it through the other aspects of the film. Completely ignored from the storyline is the severity of the murders of young, innocent girls who are manipulated into prostitution. The characters in the film are also rarely engaging as they demonstrate promise yet never live up to it. In some cases, it seems unclear what certain characters bring to the story aside from dialogue to add to the running time of the film.
Altogether, it is a decent film with generally interesting plot that holds up in the end. However, the conclusion is not as shocking as one would expect or hope and the "outer-body" experiences seem less significant as the time goes by. In the Electric Mist does not leave a great impression but based on its merits and tackling of important subject matter and content, it does leave an impression. In the Electric Mist comes off as mix of Mississippi Burning, Lost Highway and No Country for Old Men without being as deep, visually enthralling or satisfying as any of them.
In the Electric Mist
2009-11-30 - Tommy Lee Jones is well suited to the role of a detective tracking down grisly murderers in the Bayou. Confederate ghosts haunt him as he searches for answers not only to the prostitues being murdered currently, but the forty year old case that he dredges up as well. Pacing is not fast but at a even tempo that keeps your interest throughout. Good casting for all the support roles with special nods to John Goodman, Ned Beatty, and Mary Steemburgen. If you enjoy murder mysteries I suggest you at least rent this one. Good quality picture and sound with some great scenery in the New Orleans area post Katrina. Decent replayability. If you enjoyed this catch In the Valley of Elah.
CA Luster
the modern south comes alive
2009-11-04 - Tommy Lee Jones is an old school small town policeman.
When young women start showing up dead and badly cut up,
he has to investigate. A murder that he witnessed 40 years before plays a part
and he seems to have a time travel episode when
it seems like the case is going no where,
He meets a famous southern general who gives him fatherly advice,
which comes to think is his mind playing bad tricks on him.
The resulting movie is well made and keeps your attention,
but might not be very popular with a modern audience
as the plot forces you to think
about the system that still rules in the south.
about as good a movie based on J L Burke you're likely to see 
2009-11-03 - Burke's Robicheaux series is interesting for its themes, local color and revelation about the post-chilvaric south. Burke isn't a great writer; at times he overwrites and may wax eloquent about an old rocking chair on a porch for far longer than necessary. I suspect he hasn't followed Fitzgerald's dictum's of a writer sometimes having to 'kill his babies,' meaning the most elegant, expressive writing in a book may not fit the book and thus must be expunged to lend integrity to it. That being said, to take all the inner reflections--both emotional and philosophical--and to be able to interweave them with a rather complex narrative is done well in this movie by laconic dialogue that packs a punch, and includes a good use of voice over to get an insight into the protagonist's perspective of his world--one learned over decades as a citizen/observor and law enforcer. You really should read Burke's books first, even one, just to get a grip on his style as well as to understand the idioloic nature of the Louisiana accent and regionalism. Now I think Tommy Lee Jones does a good job as the lead, but he's not perfect--perhaps because no one could be perfect for to internalize the complexities of a character who has as many sides to him as Hamlet would require a lot of work, and the script simply does not provide that opportunity. A novel such as this one deserves a longer treatment. I can't imagine it being shorter than 135 minutes--needed to truly get into the world of the story which is the world of a culture both past and present, and a world of a man seeing his culture devolve into decadence and greed. BTW, note John Sayles as a Jewish movie producer with a bit of added padding and fairly good New Yawk kvetching.
Classic "Sleeper" 
2009-10-07 - Sliding right from a short run (if that) in theatres to DVD, the excellent "In the Electric Mist" is the quintessential "sleeper" film. Based on the James Lee Burke novel "In the Electric Mist of Confederate Dead", the movie finds Burke's Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux once again hot on the trail of a brutal killer. In addition to dealing with the current killing of a young prostitute, Robicheaux must address troubling memories of a murder he witnessed more than 40 years ago as boy, his daily grapple with alcoholism, and bizarre visions of conversations with Civil War Confederate General John Bell Hood, who gives him rather eliptical advice. Robicheaux (and the viewer) must decide if General Hood's presence in his life are merely reveries brought on by alcohol or a very real manifestation of the dead coming back to life in order to right a wrong. The latter assertion seems feasable, when one considers the mystical and magical ethic of rural Louisiana where the story unfolds. Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant as the troubled, flawed, but highly effective Robicheaux. One can't think of a better choice of actor. Filmed on location, director Tavernier brings the requisite "other-world" atmosphere to the table.
