If you are purchasing this video based on the past movies be forewarned………it is not the same. Tom Selleck is wonderful as Jesse but this Jesse is not Robert Parker’s Jesse. Neither “Thin Ice” nor “No Remorse” have the pace, appeal or clarity of the previous Jesse Stone movies. I sincerely hope Tom and crew will do at least one more in honor of Robert B.Parker and pull it all together.

“No Remorse” was brilliant. I’ve read the other reviews and don’t understand why some are knocking this movie as portraying Jesse Stone to be a darker character than writer Robert B. Parker created him to be. Really? Have you read the books? Jesse Stone is meant to be a loner haunted with his former life destroyed because of a drinking problem brought about due to Jesse’s weakness in dealing with his former wife’s affair. Jesse loses it all and must pick up the pieces of his life, all that is left, to begin a new life in Paradise, MA. That’s about as dark as it gets. He is a man with some serious issues – issues he is aware of and is working on.

This movie does an outstanding job in revealing Jesse’s life suspended from the police force for “too many deaths in Paradise” as we see in the final scenes of “Thin Ice”. Now Jesse is moonlighting for Captain Healey (major case) and assisting Rose and Suitcase in their own caper (minor case).

Too Dark? No. I think the last two movies are the best yet. I hope there is more to come after “Innocents Lost” airs. Tom Selleck is great as Jesse Stone. I look forward to these movies like a child waiting for Christmas day. Keep ‘em coming.

Things start to look up when Healey of the state police invites Jesse to consult on an apparent serial killer case in Boston and there’s been a rash of convenience store robberies in Paradise that Rose and Acting Police Chief Suitcase feel inadequate to cope with. Since Jesse also spends a lot of time with his psychiatrist trying to figure out why he can’t give his dog affection, his schedule fills up fast. He also needs to learn how to use a cell phone since there was an, ah, unfortunate accident with his land line. Because of the interdiction on Jesse’s communication with Suitcase and Rose, the cell phone becomes a plot point and the cloak and dagger element just misses being comic.

Jesse doggedly pursues the serial killer who seems to have a connection with the boxing promoter Gino Fish, and aids Rose and Suitcase, who need Jesse’s help in identifying the perpetrator of the convenience store robberies from security tapes. The entire Paradise police department in a superb display of teamwork catches the convenience store perp. The serial killer case is wrapped up in the last few minutes of the movie in an incredible twist that left me saying, `Huh?’

With No Remorse, the movie character of Jesse Stone diverges irrevocably from that of the late lamented Robert Parker’s books. He’s more angst-ridden and struggles in ways the book Jesse doesn’t. No Remorse, co-written by Tom Selleck, is dark. All the characters are having major problems both on and off the job to the point that it’s almost painful to watch. The delightful repartee that’s always been a feature of the Jesse Stone movies is much heavier handed and honestly, the movie could use some comic relief in addition to Jesse’s problems with his cell phone. Several plot threads were left dangling but I read there will be at least one more Jesse Stone movie, so perhaps things will be resolved.

Three and a half stars rounded up to four. I really missed the lightness of touch of the earlier entries. And I still miss Molly.