This is the 1st Jesse Stone movie, but should be watched SECOND as the events come AFTER the events in "Night Passage", which should be watched before viewing this movie. (It is not vital to the enjoyment of either movie, as they stand alone, but it does help make the series as a whole make more chronological sense.)

"Stone Cold" starring Tom Selleck, was, I believe, the first of a series of movies based on Robert Parker's books. While many people enjoyed the entire series, this was the only movie I liked.

It's an excellent story, well-acted, filled with wonderful characters and relationships. The film is over too soon, and I can appreciate people's desire to see more of this series, but I didn't think the other movies were as well done.

A serial killer (or killers) is loose in the small town where Selleck works as a sheriff. We learn early on who the killer(s) are and the movie is a game of cat and mouse with Selleck trying to outsmart and eventually capture them. Jane Adams gives a riveting performance as a sociopathic killer and Selleck is ideally cast as the sheriff.

Alexis Dziena is a sympathetic rape victim. Her interfering mother prevents Selleck from dealing with the rapists in the way he'd like, and he makes the best of a bad situation, but I don't think a lot of the issues of rape were dealt with realistically.

Alexis worries about having to go back to school with the boys who raped her, and worries about how she'll be treated by friends and schoolmates who know what happened, but no one even touches on how she'll feel about herself after this, or about boys, or how she'll feel about marriage and having children. Rape is not a social faux pas that you have to live down at school; it's a life-changing event that alters the way you feel about yourself and your world and the people in it, including people you once thought you could trust.

I hate to criticize something so important in a movie I like so much, but I have to say that you can tell that the writers are male, and maybe the actress playing the role was too young to know or to speak out about the fact that her character was drawn incompletely. A more mature Jane Adams (or perhaps her director) fleshed out her character beautifully.

Even with flaws, it's still a terrific movie. In fact, the flaws wouldn't be noticeable if it weren't such a terrific movie.

Tom Selleck is excellent as Jesse Stone. This is a thoughtful, well written and well-acted movie. I have enjoyed the entire series but this movie stands out.

We are fans of the Jesse Stone series, but the sleaze factor was much higher in this one and detracted from it.

I think with his experence from Hawaii 5-0 and these Jesse Stone [bad azz] movies he can just keep going on making movies of this content.....