Blu-Ray Review: Mr. Jones

By Brad Henderson

As we all know and as I’ve said before: found footage movies usually get an eye roll, which you can hear miles away when those films are announced. Sure, people claim this way of telling a story is just a gimmick, but that is incorrect. I give this method of storytelling praise if it is executed without being used as one. Using found footage to tell a story is special to me in many ways. Mostly it’s because these stories are told from a person’s point of view, which can make something more terrifying and real. That doesn’t happen in all cases, of course, and is not the case with Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones is a film that puts a “new” spin on found footage. It creates a fantastic trap to keep its audience engulfed in the story and history of our character, Mr. Jones. The one thing that the film fails to do is to keep the audience interested. Unfortunately, it drifts off during what I would call the most important part of the film.

Mr. Jones starts with a couple making some sort of nature documentary. During their time spent out in a peaceful place in the middle of nowhere, they come across Mr. Jones. At first it seems legit, like this dude really does exist, but I actually looked it up and there was no such person. He’s a fictional character created for the film. You might read this and ask if I’m stupid and the answer is no. A lot of films have used real places and events and just extrapolated the idea and made it into their own story. The character isn’t real but they did one hell of a good job making me believe that he was.

Mr. Jones is a man who creates horrifying art and sends his pieces to random people. His work is highly sought after in the art realm, but only a few pieces actually exist. Our characters stumble upon Mr. Jones and uncover the secret of why he makes this art.

Now, that sounds like a badass plot and it is. I dug most of this film and love the direction it took until the last 20 minutes or so when it completely lost me. I found the ending disappointing and was hoping they would keep up what they presented to us in the beginning. Instead it just dropped me off in a place that I didn’t want to be at the end of the journey and left me wanting more.

I still recommend the film because its take on found footage is creative and well done. Drop me a line and tell me what you thought of the ending. It’s a little out there and I’m sure will result in endless discussions and opinions. I look forward to seeing what people thought of Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones was released on Blu-Ray through Anchor Bay Films on May 6.