Cocked (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews

Stylishly done yet didn't hold my attention

[cherold · 6/10 · 9 March 2017]

Cocked, a failed pilot for a series about a gun-making family, starts off great, with a high-energy, stylishly filmed sequence at a gun show. Right away there's some nefarious action and some tension between hothead Jason Lee and his father, and I thought, this will be lots of fun.

And yet, as the series progressed I found myself never quite as engaged as I would hope. After a super start, the show just started to look like any other soap opera about a business dynasty, and by the end all the flashiness and given way to something pretty ordinary.

It wasn't bad, but if the series had been picked up, I wouldn't have bothered watching.

Amazon Pilot

[vikosaurus · 7/10 · 2 February 2015]

With Jason Lee on the poster, I expected a satirical comedy and in a way, the pilot doesn't disappoint.

Jason Lee's character does have a bit of his Earl Hickey personality, or at least you get the feeling of it, albeit being entirely different. The first episode leaves you impressed with the ending. It satires the Gun culture more than the laws or an individual itself, which is refreshing.

However, it doesn't quite give you the feeling of waiting for the next episode and bad as the other counterparts. If Amazon is going to pick only one Pilot, I doubt this will make its way through, unless Amazon picks top 3 or more.

Really nothing special, but somewhat entertaining.

[rprince-832-6294 · 6/10 · 8 March 2015]

-Cocked (2015) TV movie review: -Cocked follows a father and son who own a failing gun company, and need the help of their son/brother to fix their promotional adds, but they have to fix their family relationship before they can work together.

-Only a few things make this movie not completely forgettable, so I will try to think of those by the end.

-I didn't really care for the story, and it had some trouble focusing.

-The pace was fine. It's only an hour.

-The acting is not great. It has some guy, some older guy, and Earl from My Name Is Earl, who all do fine, but there is nothing special.

-The characters are all somewhat easy to root for and like when they start to work things out, but until then you don't really like any of them.

-The music was odd. Very Coen Brothers, which worked.

-Some of the editing was very Wes Anderson, which I liked.

-I knew there were a few things! Cocked is nothing special and nothing new, but it is entertaining, somewhat. It might be worth watching on Netflix, if you want to see Earl shoot large automatic pistols through bottles as fruit in slow motion set to classical music. That was a cool scene.

-It is rated-R for some language, not a lot, some nudity, not a lot, but enough, and some drug use.

Pilot episode shows great promise.

[jmpomaha · 9/10 · 15 January 2015]

Amazon Studios produced this pilot.

I was expecting a comedy with some dramatic elements as the plot synopsis claims. What I got, and was highly surprised by, was more drama with light-hearted elements. This is not a gut buster comedy and it never pushed the funny button that hard on me. Having seen it now, I would not want it to be that comedy show. Sure, the prat falls were funny and the interplay between the brothers is your typical dysfunctional family fare, but it was also real in how the brothers sort of hate each other as only family can.

** Spoilers of plot and character follow below ** Jason Lee plays the ne'er-do-well brother Grady Paxson is a firearms engineering genius who just cannot keep from disappointing the family with his playboy, drug addicted lifestyle. He will screw anyone in the bedroom or the boardroom. "You're either a mouse or a snake," he says to his nephew as he feeds a mouse to a python. That is his philosophy. He is as right wing as General Patton, yet ill prepared to grow up and lead. Grady wants to save their family business -- a foundering gun company run by his aging, though tough-as-nails, father Wade (Brian Dennehy) -- but can't keep his pants on or stay away from cocaine long enough to make the real decisions that will keep the business from a rival firearms manufacturing company run by Wade's brother, Rayburn. Rayburn and Wade have been feuding for years. Because of some corporate espionage Rayburn is in a position to force a hostile takeover of Paxson Firearms.

Richard Paxson (Sam Trammell) is the prodigal son who left the family he never fit in with and doesn't want to try to anymore. He is the polar opposite of Grady. Richard is a ultra-responsible touchy-feely guy who married a touchy-feely, gun hating psychologist and lives in Denver with his kids and labradoodle as he drives his Prius to his job where he is a corporate flunky. Richard is at a low point in his career. You can see there are tensions in his marriage. His kids do not really respect him. Richard does not even seem to respect himself.

Richard comes to the aid of the family business because of a threat on his life if his father does not sell the company. Tensions and old angers rise up on his return. Richard versus Grady. Wade versus Rayburn. Brother against brother times two.

The twist at the end of the pilot episode came unexpectedly and made it much more interesting.

I would like to see a little more comedy as he series develops (assuming Amazon picks this up for a full run). The series is rated TV-Mature for explicit language, drug use, female nudity and sex. Add to that the stereotypical right wing gun nut characters the writers portray throughout and some audience members may be either amused or offended, or even disgusted. Being a gun friendly person it took me a moment to realize that they were actually poking fun at us. Good job! It was all for laughs and it was not so overboard that as to be a slap in the face to the gun community. There are even some cameo appearances by NRA spokespeople.

This show was excellent in casting, production values and story line. It is a series that I am anticipating much more from and would have easily seen this as a major network or basic cable series.

Super Fun, Great Cast, Intriguing World

[jlazarch · 10/10 · 22 January 2015]

Pilot is super fun! Great cast and a really intriguing world for a show. Smart and compelling. Creators Samuel Baum (Lie to Me) and Sam Shaw (WGN's Manhattan) did a great job with the story and characters. The issue of guns in American is huge and this show has the potential to start a real conversation about how we protect ourselves and how to approach the world: with open arms or "cocked." As Albert Einstein said, "The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe." I can't wait to see where the story goes. Spoiler alert: It ends with a twist. This better go to series.