Nostalgia got me on this one. I was 14 when it came out and it was everything I was about back then. It spoke directly to my teen angst. Takes me right back, everytime I watch it. It might not be the best film ever made but I really like it. For me it's an 8/10 but I'm biased and realistically, I know it's more of a 6/10.
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noawareness13 June 2021
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cudax14 January 2023Interesting storyline with a few twists. Well done casting for the most part, including a very young Kate Hudson...Cinematography is spectacular for what's mostly just a desert, hence the title. Nobody seems to have caught one glaring example of a goof...Casey Affleck's character is riding a Honda 250S quad, but when confronted by the Sheriff, he gets very belligerent and says that his quad has an 8000cc turbocharged engine, when it plainly says on the tank 250S, which is 250cc! Its NOT turbocharged but normally aspirated 2 cycle engine, pre-liquid cooled version! 8000cc works out to 488 cu in, larger than the average V8 of today.
Still, all said, it's an entertaining movie if you're bored... -
Yexx30 April 1999Wholly unoriginal film, can be compared to a hundred different indie flicks. Did have a few bright moments, however... Well-cast and well-acted (for the most part)... The ending is quite terrible, though.
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neyib_bandy1 September 2002I just finished seeing Desert Blue for the first time and my first impressions for this movie are good. I liked this movie for it's simplicity and well written monologues which entangle you in it's story line enough to take you through the entire movie. It's young cast is good enough to portray somewhat lost teenagers in what would be best described as "small town U.S.A." All except for the sometimes over played, but not this time, "kid star/rich girl" portrayed by Kate Hudson. I did though have a problem with the way the movie develops as it seems to leave as hanging awaiting for a "ad they lived happily ever after" tag Line but then again I guess that was implied in the movie itself. I'd definitely recommend it. I just finished watching it and I can't wait to see it again.
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Nuno_Reis2 July 2001I've recently seen this movie on TV and I remembered to comment it for IMDb. The movie has a good story and is very well conducted by this Morgan Freeman, the cast is also great: Christina Ricci and some brothers of great stars (Richmond Arquette is one of the Arquette Brother, Casey Affleck, younger brother of Ben Affleck) that also act great, although not as well as they expert brothers and sisters. Kate Hudson's character, Skye, is very interesting and she had a great start and she liked her teammates so much that she (she meet Casey Affleck and Christina Ricci again in "200 cigarettes"). The funniest scenes of the movies are the blasts, and the most touching is the water running in the end. This movie may be forgotten in a couple of years, but I know that everyone that as an almost impossible dream like the sea in the desert will remember this story after achieving that dream.
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wge213 June 1999This is a nice, sweet film. It will, however, be quickly forgotten since there is nothing terribly new here. The acting is very strong. All in all, it's worth watching.
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JRich8 January 2000"Desert Blue" is both mildly entertaining and boring. Brendan Sexton III and Kate Hudson cute romance is the only reason I like this movie. Both actors have bright futures in Hollywood. The movie should have focused more on them instead of all these boring supporting characters. The first movie by this director "Hurricane Streets" is a much better movie.
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Squrpleboy9 June 2003If you ever happen upon Baxter, California (Pop. 87, and home to
the world's largest ice cream cone) you might wanna just keep on
truckin' clear on through to the next town; there's NOTHING
happening here.
Populated with a very small cast of marginally eccentric
characters, mostly listless teens, Desert Blue tells the story of a
group of bored (and boring) townsfolk inhabiting what remains of
an old miners settlement. One day a Cultural Studies professor
(John Heard) and his snotty young actress daughter (Kate
Hudson) stop by to get a look at the world's largest ice cream cone
monument! Suddenly, a tanker truck carrying the secret ingredient
used to make local soda-magnate Empire Cola's special brew
overturns and spews out toxic chemicals, which of course means
the FBI is called in to quarantine the town! Now all the teens have
left to do is sit around drinking and making out! Which means of
course that Hudson's character, Skye, will fall for the sensitive (ie.,
dumb) local boy, Blue, who is so desperately trying to fulfill his
dead father's dream of opening a water-park in the middle of the
desert (?), and in turn she become a much more sensitive woman
in the process! Awwww. Oh, and Christina Ricci likes to blow stuff
up...........real good!
The film reeks of having little to say, or show, but nonetheless s-t- r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out what it does provide as long as it can. None of
the characters is expanded on enough to be truly engaging or
anything beyond mere caricature. Not that the acting is bad (with
the exception of Ricci, who is just horrible), but Hudson comes off
as the closest to being realistic, with the others merely being
ample. The film itself doesn't look too bad visually, although it
becomes very noticeable that most action takes place outside of
the town, or inside locations, so that no people outside of the cast
appear anywhere. The best part of the film is the eclectic
soundtrack, featuring some nice old Country & Western tracks
spliced in amongst the newer lo-fi stuff. Over-all, I've written far
more than this film deserves words wasted on it.
5/10. Yawn. Sunday afternoon fodder at best or a cure for
insomnia at least. -
Boyo-21 November 1999It took awhile to get going, but I ended up loving "Desert Blue" quite a bit. It was nice to see Sexton play a character without the need for anger-management, and I also liked Kate Hudson also. It wasn't the greatest, funniest or most touching movie I ever saw, but it was certainly better than most. I liked practically every character on some level, and I can't say that about a lot of movies. It made me think of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" & "Bagdad Cafe" with a touch of "Firestarter".
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LyceeM1617 December 2016Good, but not great.. Based on the reviews, I expected to like this film a bit more than I did. I love quirky independent films and I am a big fan of Morgan Freeman. So, it pains me to say that the writing (dialogue) was clunky. The characters were interesting and offbeat but some of the relationships that developed did not seem credible. Casey Affleck, Christina Ricci, and Brandan Sexton III were all very good. That said, I thought that the idea of portraying the struggle of people in a small town and the juxtaposition of the quirky (ice cream cone, beach in the desert) with the clear tedium and pain of life in an economically depressed and largely abandoned town was interesting.
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=G=20 October 2002"Desert Blue", the nickname of a central character, tells of a handful of young adults in a ramshackle desert town who have too much time and too little to do with it. The film is long on talent but so short on story one can only wonder how it ever got into production much less distribution. Slow, monotonous, boring, and dumb, "Desert Blue" is one of those B-flicks which one watches with detachment always cognizant of the fact the characters are actors going through the motions required for their paycheck. For fans only. (C)
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Film_Boy10 April 1999Wow. What a great film. The acting is awesome. The story is original but familiar enough for you to become invested in. The characters are original and quirky in a very real way. The best thing is that, as a teen, I never felt insulted by what I was seeing. Of course, I am not like these people, but I definitely can relate to them and can say I know a few like them. A believable, intriguing film that is both very funny and very dramatic. Go see it.
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Any town that needs a giant ice cream cone to put it on the map, has to be a pathetically boring place to live, so why make a movie about boredom? The end result is a well acted, but totally pointless film. You need more than a bunch of quirky characters trapped by a hazardous materials spill doing essentially nothing that creates interest. Even the truck crash, occasional pyrotechnic explosions, and a shooting, are done off screen, further contributing to this pointless and extremely shallow movie. John Heard has made some terrific films (see "Cutter's Way"), unfortunately "Desert Blue" would not be among them. You have been warned. - MERK
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kejava-315 March 2000I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. This movie, led by an ensemble cast of young and rising actors (Brendan Sexton, Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck, Christina Ricci), starts slowly but gathers momentum nicely. Skye (Hudson), an up-and-coming actress with her own cable comedy, gets trapped in a small California town well off the highway when a chemical spill shuts down the only road in and out of town. Stuck far from her world -- in a town without cable or cell phones -- Skye is befriended by Blue (Sexton) and meets the local "gang" -- five kids without much to do. Over two days punctuated by explosions -- the results of Ely's (Ricci) love for illicit bomb making -- the group bonds together in unexpected ways.
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What I truly love about Desert Blue, not only is it an all star cast, but it was definitely well thought up. It has mystery. It has dramatic moments. There is not much action, but I feel that it has the perfect amount. Desert Blue also has several amounts of comedy mixed in to bring it all together. If a sequel was to be made of Desert Blue, I would like to see a lot of the same actors and actresses in it. As well as the same director and producer. Since there was just a slight bit of romantic involvement with some of the characters, perhaps the sequel could go in a little deeper into that yet still have all the other elements that a great movie like Desert Blue has. I hope that if there is a sequel, that it will live up to its predecessor. If there wasn't going to be a sequel, perhaps now there will be.
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EdRooney5 June 1999"Desert Blue" With "Hurricane Streets". director Morgan J. Freeman burst onto the film scene with a sharp portrayal of bored inner city kids. Motivated by stealing, disarmed by love, the film was highly entertaining if a bit flawed. "Desert Blue" is Freeman's second film and represents his attempt to reach the opposite end of the spectrum. This time, instead of a population of millions, we now get a population of 97. The film is set in fictional Baxter, California, the home of the world's largest ice cream cone and the factory of burgeoning cola company Empire Cola. When a truck carrying Empire's secret ingredient has a massive accident and subsequent spill, the town in quarantined and put on alert for possible toxic contaminants. The town locals, who never thought about leaving their boring town before, now become antsy and think about life outside of Baxter. Kate Hudson ("200 Cigarettes") and John Heard play two travelers who were passing through Baxter during the spill. They become part of the quarantine and befriend the locals. Brendan Sexton III ("Hurricane Streets"), Casey Affleck ("Good Will Hunting"), Christina Ricci (Everything independent), and Ethan Suplee ("Mallrats") play the local kids. The ride around all day in ATVs and spend their nights drinking by the long aquaduct. Each kid harbors a long standing resentment to Baxter, and each kid expresses that uniquely. Ricci by anarchy, Affleck by ATV racing, Suplee has a long dream of becoming a deputy, and Sexton tries to keep the family business alive, thought it died a long time ago. "Desert Blue" is somewhat a comedy, somewhat a drama, and somewhat a commercial for poor actors. While it's nice to see old faces like Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne") and Michael Ironside ("Total Recall") in small supporting roles, the rest of the cast is laughably bad. I do understand that they might be trying to conveying boredom, but they do it just a touch too realistically. That leaves the film with a very awkward static atmosphere. The best moments of the film come when Freeman lets his actors and the plot get a bit silly. The film comes alive in scenes of Orange baseball, potato guns, and an ad-lib by Casey Affleck that made me laugh the rest of the picture. "Desert Blue" could have worked better if Freeman would have lit a fire under the plot. Too many scenes include drunken ramblings, proof that a film isn't trying. While I came out of the film with a good feeling about it, I wished the movie could've taken more advantage of it's possibilities. ------- 6
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mattryan006 October 2002I'd like to preface any comments with the fact that i liked this movie. It was a good watch, and i really enjoyed it. I was never much of a kate hudson fan, but after watching this one it's impossible not to love that girl :o)
I can't stand the people on imdb that write these over-analytical, hollywood bullsh*t analyses; so i'll keep this one simple and to the point: Solid romantic plot, fun dialogue, and interesting characters.
I also had fun recognizing some of the people in this film who play lesser roles, who are more notable from other movies/tv shows (i.e. "darlene" from roseanne, peter mcallister--the dad from home alone, and the head fbi agent--from starship troopers just to name a few). I don't want to brand any of these actors with these roles; it's just that i'd find myself watching and go: I know that person!
Well, that's all i got here...give it a watch :o) -
bispojames23 February 2019As I child I remember when they were filming this movie in Goldfield Nv and it was such a big deal to have movie stars there lol. Time passed and I forgot about the movie, then it was on TV yesterday and I watched it. Movie holds up great even today and is very heartfelt with an amazing cast. Highly recommend for a family with teens.
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Hugh-103 April 1999This film was much better than I was expecting and much better than most Quirky films with a youthful cast. Sexton, Ricci and Hudson are all really great. John Heard is adorable as the shaggy pop culture prof. Really a nifty little film!
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sarahjeanaxo10 July 2001i really did like this movie. it's totally cheesy and teeny-bobberish, but it's cute. casey affleck is great and so is kate hudson. i rented this movie and watched it like 5 times over the course of my 5-day rental. gotta get my money's worth and i feel like i did.
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pandeyvimleshkumar18 April 2019Watched it just hours ago and I totally loved it. Every bit of it. It's a well written, acted and directed film. Music and cinematography too are great. Thanks for this feeling. :)
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If you followed my reviews since I began to write them in the summer of 2017, you'd certainly have noticed that I am not the typical movie viewer. In fact I reviewed old movies, TV episodes of shows I love or of which I watch all episodes, modern movies, theater releases and bizarre movies of which nobody has heard except two or three who dare to review them. About bizarre movies, I might have seen various of them such as UNDER THE HULA MOON, SLEEPWALK and MOJAVE MOON and they amazed me for how bizarre they were. But DESERT BLUE is like they put those three movies and mixed them in a blender. Let's see what I mean, shall we?
Skye Davis (Kate Hudson) is a starlet that one day is riding with her dad and they end stranded in a town in the desert where they gradually meet the town's eccentric residents. Some of them are Blue Baxter who is obsessed with tube bombs, athlete Peter Kepler (Casey Affleck), professor Lance Davidson (John Heard) that often discusses about his classes even tho we are in the summer, and Cale who wants to build a water park in the desert because it was his father's dream.
The acting was good by all (Hudson, Affleck, Christina Ricci, Heard, Michael Ironside, Peter Sarsgaard, Aunjanue Ellis and Liev Schreiber) but the reason why I consider this movie strange is because the characters are all unlike others you'd see in other movies, the situations were often bizarre and especially the ending came by surprise, with the river that comes out of nowhere in the desert and then is used as a swimming pool... you just have to see it to believe it!
Highly recommended if you are fans of the odd like me or fans of the cast members and if you are in the right mood you'd end up liking it like I did. -
Ween6 April 1999Desert Blue is a very simple story of a spoiled Hollywood actress who, along with her dad (the impressive John Heard) gets stuck in a tiny town whose only pride comes from having the 'World's Largest Ice Cream Cone'. Once in the town, they are forced to stay because of the spilling of a mysterious Cola ingredient, and soon enough the spoiled actress falls for Blue.
The films is full of cliches, and the eccentric characters are not original. The plot is standard and the performances just par. Christina Ricci, as in most of her most recent films, plays a bitchy cynic, while all the other characters do little: they have a goal and chase after it.
Very disappointing stuff, unoriginal and a script which was not very sharp, treading over similar ground. John Heard is the best thing in the movie, and he's not in it very often as Morgan J. Freeman instead focuses on the youth. -
noralee12 December 2005I went to see "Desert Blue" without having read much about it. I really liked it.
It reminded me of the little Austrailian movies that are so quirky and character-driven.
It has a very fine cast. Sara Gilbert of Roseanne, ironically, is not playing the TV star who lands in a bit town in the desert, who is played by the more conventionally pretty Kate Hudson; Casey Affleck has brown hair; the ever charming Brendan Sexton III; the always interesting Christina Ricci in mascara mode; John Heard who is becoming like Harvey Keitel in his willingness to be in offbeat projects in addition to mainstream ones.
The leisurely pace takes advantage of a terrific set in Nevada and reveals characters onion-like.
The soundtrack doesn't use Dave Alvin's "Dry River," but the soundtrack was unusual - in addition to groups like the Candyskins, several of the very lyrically-appropriate songs were written by the scorer Vytas Nagisetty and the auteur Morgan J. Freeman - NOT the actor, but who has made several movies with Sexton.
I felt cheated without a final kiss; yeah yeah it's a stereotype but come on, give the audience some dessert. Instead there's a different satisfying ending.
(originally written 6/13/1999) -
community_party22 February 2004i just got to the milestone 100th viewing of Desert Blue. this movie was way better than most quirky movies with youthful casts. i need visine. oh so quirky. oh so youthful. visine,visine,visine. great,great,great. i love casey affleck, morgan freeman and johnny depp