Limited Style of Humour
Much to Earl's (Joshua Jackson) ire people refer to Baby (Jamie King) as his sister when the truth is that she is his step sister and they are engaged. But Earl and Baby have big plans as in a couple of days they plan to head to L.A. as Baby wants a career in a soap opera. But then Baby's cousin Junior (DJ Qualls) shows up in trouble as having attempted to rob a pizza guy he grabbed a bag full of cash, cash which just happens to be mob money. So now not only does Earl have to get Baby to L.A. but also help out Junior which brings Earl in to contact with some shady characters which he hasn't seen since he was a child and gave testimony in court against the men who killed his father.
The premise to "Lone Star State of Mind" may be original with Earl trying to sort things out for Junior with just 48 hours to get Baby to LA at the same time but the concept isn't. This sort of comedy with a guy with a deadline and being spread thinly between various people with problems goes back to the golden age of cinema. Basically "Lone Star State of Mind" is a modern uptake on an old screwball comedy which will work for those who have never watched old screwball comedies but will be weak for those who have.
For me "Lone Star State of Mind" ended up purely a passable comedy, an 88 minute distraction with comedy which not so much misfired but rarely really made me laugh. About the only time I laughed was whenever DJ Qualls was in a scene as he was the only one within any real comic talent in the entire movie. The opening scene which involves the robbery of the pizza man works because of Qualls and his selling of the gags rather than the jokes themselves.
What this all boils down to is that "Lone Star State of Mind" isn't a bad movie but the comedy isn't great and it is mainly down to DJ Qualls that some of the humour works whilst as the same time Jaime King is a sexy distraction, but that is it.
