Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It is a performances centric movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I've never seen a jack nicholson movie that wasn't chaotic so this didn't disappoint ... i just can't get into watching a film he's in ... we'd have all been better off if they hanged him at the beginning instead letting this fiasco run on

Texas, shortly after the Civil War. Henry Moon is an outlaw, on the run from the law. He is captured trying to escape to Mexico and taken back to town to be hanged. The town has a special law that a condemned man can walk free if one of the single women of the town offer to marry him. Henry is in luck - at the last moment Julia Tate offers to marry him, and pretty soon they are married. However, Henry soon discovers that Julia's motives are purely business-orientated - she needs someone to work the mine on her property. This makes for a very cold marriage...Ostensibly a comedy-western, but not overly funny. Has its moments, but many of the attempts at humour are of a slapstick nature and end up rather silly. Had some potential as a drama, exploring and developing the relationship between Henry and Julia, but this is pretty basic and predictable.Some pretty big names in the cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen (in her first movie), John Belushi, Christopher Lloyd, Ed Begley Jr and Danny DeVito (in a minor role). Unfortunately the movie does not come close to making full use of their talents. Even Nicholson seems unconvincing, even hammy at times. Why John Belushi was even in the movie was beyond me - he doesn't have much screen time and his performance mostly consists of insane laughter and ramblings. Considering how he tended to find inspiration, I reckon that, during the filming of the movie, he did more lines off-screen than had lines on-screen...Belushi's presence might also explain Nicholson's persistent nasally way of talking in the movie...

Despite a scruffy Jack Nicholson looking completely mad on the poster, this movie offers to few laughs to be considered to be a good comedy western. But in the other hand I'm not sure what to think of it, or how to label it. It got kind of a subtle and odd humor, very low key and not producing too many laughs but enough to keep interest.Nicholson plays Henry Moon. A criminal convicted to hang, but at the last moment he is saved by a young woman, Julia, due to a local ordnance that any land owning woman can claim the criminal as a husband (since the town lost too many men in the war). Moon of course accepts, but might have reconsidered after he met Julia. She on the other hand just wants him to dig for gold on her farm. In Texas. And not making things easier is Moon's old gang that hangs about… It is rather slow, but some gems show up. Just the cast is one of them. Besides Nicholson you can see Mary Steenburgen in her first role, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, Jeff Morris, Ed Begley Jr and Danny DeVito. Just to see DeVito in a gunfight, jumping to fire over a shed is worth to watch the entire movie.So while I didn't think too much of it, it was entertaining enough not to be a waste of time.5/10

For some mysterious reason, this film failed to delight both critics and the public when it was first released in 1978, probably because it did not match the celluloid and writing quality of Nicholson's previous multi-million dollar funded blockbusters, "Chinatown", and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I first watched "Goin' South" on video back in 1987 when I was 26. I watched it with six other people, and we all laughed hysterically throughout this delightfully funny film (and we don't drink or take drugs). The critics, and sadly, Nicholsen's fans, completely missed the point of this great movie. It was Jack taking a break from the 'biz' to explore his directing gifts (though no Spielberg, he is capable) and due to the low budget, he makes up in performance what the Hollywood trimmings and glitz cannot provide. His co-stars, especially John Belushi in his first major film role, is absolutely hilarious. Every one of his films pale compared to his toothless, Mexican loser of a bandit impersonation. When I watch this movie every now and then, I can see why the critics were so hard on this film. Mary Steenburgen (in her first film role too) was not the right person to play the part of the prissy, virginal, and headstrong maiden who saves Jack from the gallows (some old Civil War law where a woman can save a condemned man by marrying him). She's just too bitchy, and none of us want to see the misguided, but lovable Jack treated this way. You kind of feel sorry for the guy, and this unintentionally brings the viewer down a little here and there (but not much!). Even though things change for the better, by that point in the film, you just don't care. If the film had a larger budget, they would have been able to afford an actress of the caliber of Julie Christie, Sally Fields, or even Goldie Hawn. There are times when Steenburgen just sort of sucks the life out of the scene, and if it weren't for Jack's over-the-top acting, even I might get annoyed. This being said, the film is still one of the best 90 minutes I can spend in front of the boob tube. I love it, and I think you will too.