Tom Selleck is back as Police Chief Jesse Stone in Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise. The TV movie originally aired on the Hallmark Channel in October 2015 but the film debuts on DVD Jan. 26. Here’s my review of the DVD…
In Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise, Police Chief Stone (Tom Selleck) helps the Massachusetts State Homicide Division investigate an unsolved murder. Though local police think the murder involves the already incarcerated serial killer, “The Boston Ripper” (Luke Perry), Stone believes the real murderer may still be loose.
The basics of the movie are very noir-style but set in the modern era. From Stone’s alcohol problems, to Stone’s relationship with his ex-wife, and the occasional saxophone heavy theme music, it’s reminiscent of the popular noir films from the late 1940’s to mid 1950’s. The plot is not too predictable but you kind of have that Scooby-Doo feeling that it might be someone we have seen on screen at the beginning of the movie.
Tom Selleck is totally in his element since he has made a pretty good living off of playing an investigator or some type of police authority figure for much of his career. To see Luke Perry play a serial killer that “likes to talk with his hands” (but never uses his hands to talk) is pretty surprising. It’s hard to see Perry as anyone else that’s not Dylan on 90210 but he did a pretty decent job.
As for the bonus features for this DVD, it seems that those are also lost in paradise because they are absolutely nonexistent. At the very least, deleted scenes or at least some featurette about the Jesse Stone character could have been added. Having no bonus features makes this movie pointless to purchase.
Verdict
For people that are fans of the Jesse Stone character or fans of noir, you would probably enjoy this movie but as for purchasing it, you are just better off either waiting for the Hallmark Channel to air it again or just wait for it to start streaming on some streaming service. It’s not that it’s a bad movie but you would be better off saving your money for something with more value.
I give Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise DVD 4 fridges out of 10.