Lone
Star State of Mind would have you believe that all Texans are collection of nutjobs,
whose greatest ambitions in life are to win the lottery of rob the pizza delivery
guy (more for the pizza than the money.) It is just such a crime that is the spark
that sets this fun, but not terribly well-written small town farce into motion.
The
narrator of the tale is Earl Crest (Joshua Jackson) who is the rock of this community,
kind of the self-proclaimed savior of the various wing-nuts that come into daily
contact with his life. And all of these wingnuts, feel exactly the same as Earl.
He’s the bastion of sanity standing among a world of wackiness. Josh heads
a fun cast that includes his fiancee Jamie King, his gay best friend Matthew Davis,
his cousin in law Junior (DJ Qualls, Road Trip) and to round it out John Mellencamp
as his good-for-nothing step-father.
When
Junior and the recently paroled Jimbo (Earl was somewhat responsible for Jimbo’s
2 year Irish Vacation) rob the Pizza man, they unwittingly end up with a duffel
bag full of 20 Grand and a fortune in cocaine. After Junior starts sporting around
a bunch of fancy boots an duds, Earl takes him aside and squeezes the truth out
of him and (as is his calling) takes it upon himself to help extricate his fiancee’s
cousin and Jimbo from a world of trouble that they soon find themselves in.
Not
only do the ruthless drug-lords want their money and merchandise back, but the
fellows that Jimbo promised to sell the merchandise to, show up and just decide
to take it without the courtesy of remuneration. The plot pretty much ping pongs
back and forth between who has possession of the goodies and who comes strapped
and ready to reclaim comprise the majority of the plot and though there are some
fun and comical moments it wears thin.
Jaime
King just wants to get the hell out of Texas and move to LA an become a soap opera
actress and Earl sees this as a good way to get out of Dodge and out from under
the responsibility of being the shepherd of the entire town. Problems arise when
Earl is forced to spend the couple’s LA money to save Junior’s butt
- but in the end it all shakes out about the way you’d figure and though
this is not a great film, it makes for a kooky little diversion.
