Parkland: The $1.99 Black Friday Pick

I took a shot at Parkland for $2 on Black Friday because I am deeply fascinated with the JFK assassination and it has a very good cast of Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti, Ron Livingstone, Zac Efron (He isn't terrible in this actually), and others you'll recognize throughout. The story attempts to show others besides JFK, his family, Oswald, or the others you'd expect. It follows Kennedy's body into Parkland Hospital and focuses on a couple doctors/nurses for a stretch. It follows Abe Zapruder as he takes the famous footage of Kennedy being shot. It follows Oswald's brother & mother for a stretch. It follows the head of the FBI in Dallas (BILLY BOB!). There are more, but you obviously get the point. Following these characters does help give a different perspective and depth to the assassination that was interesting, but it's spread WAY too thin. You don't care enough about anyone's story since they aren't on screen enough. It also fails to REALLY have a point or a solid direction throughout. It's very unfocused sadly and I think it was possible to have a very good film with what they had. Bottom Line: 6.8 out of 10. It was entertaining and I especially liked Giamatti's performance as Abe Zapruder, but I'm a big Paul G fan, so it's probably biased. It has some interesting things about the assassination that I didn't know, so I enjoyed those parts. It's worth a viewing if you're a JFK fan.