Jesse Stone: Eiskalt

Stone Cold is fun to watch not so much for the story as it is for the performances of the ensemble cast. Everyone is good in this. Mimi Rogers was definitely a lot of fun as the older seductress. But most surprising for me is Tom Sellick's transformation into a real actor.

In the 80's he was always Sellick being Sellick - much like Tom Cruise is always Tom Cruise pretending to be a vampire, a fighter pilot, etc. I first saw Sellick's transformation in "Ike" (or was it "Eisenhower"?). Gone was the high pitched tones at the end of his lines so typical and annoying in Magnum PI and his films from the 80's. In Ike and in Stone Cold it's as if you're watching a different person.

(Coincidentally, Tom Cruise's work in War of the Worlds also struck me as a breakthrough - something about his performance was more polished and less of the hysterical Cruise mannerisms that irritated me in all of his other movies.) I used to avoid Tom Sellick flicks, but after his last couple of performances, including the brooding old school cop in Stone Cold, I'm actually looking forward to seeing more of him.