Director: Clint Eastwood
Other notable films of his: Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, American Sniper,
Writer: Sam Dolnick
Official Synopsis: “Broke, alone and facing foreclosure on his business, 90-year-old horticulturist Earl Stone takes a job as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. His immediate success leads to easy money and a larger shipment that soon draws the attention of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates. When Earl’s past mistakes start to weigh heavily on his conscience, he must decide whether to right those wrongs before law enforcement and cartel thugs catch up to him.”
Viewing Experience
Theater: El Dorado Hills Regal Cinemas
Snacks Consumed: 1 Coke Icee & a box of milk-duds. (only ate 1/4 of the box)
Quality of theater: Pretty sour smell in the air. Like a moldy carpet left out in the sun too long.
Audience: Tolerable.
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Review
I first saw the trailer to this movie about a month back and found myself excited having not felt something for an upcoming movie in a while. From the trailer impression I expected a movie along the likes of Sicario, The counselor, or Savages. This was mainly due to the fact the film’s trailer hinted promise of a typical cartel flick I’m used to seeing that contain savage displays of violence, high stakes danger, drug `peddling, machine guns, cops in action. Oddly enough, I left the theater with only a tiny fraction of those things. But that didn’t necessarily make it a bad film in my eyes. Let me explain…
The good:
Clint Eastwood does a darn good job in this film acting and directing wise. His shot selection is pristine, shaded and crisp. Even the casting (Andy Garcia as the Cartel Boss!) is stunning,which I feel is an aspect of film making that is overlooked and undervalued by many. A few times during this movie I found myself smiling in awe of Clint’s performance as Earl Stone -the charming, sharp witted war vet. On top of that I was forced to remember that he is actually 88 years of age and doing a better job than a lot of actors on screen today. Really goes to show that age is only a hindrance to those that let it be.
The film is pretty straightforward, the plot not highly sophisticated. Proof: a woman no younger than 75 years old was sitting three chairs away and seemed to follow along just fine. Commenting on scenes in her outside voice every five or so minutes 🙂 🙂
To my surprise a central driving point of this “dark and gritty” film was actually humor. Lots and lots of humor. And I must say it was funny. I found myself laughing out loud at a few bits which isn’t common for me. Beware though racial jokes galore, which never bothered me, along with the “Old man vs the young generation and their Iphones” which almost got repetitive. Almost.
The transitions into each of Earl’s drug runs were an artistic aspect of the film I really enjoyed. The scenes would open with a wide angled view of his truck driving through a long countryside and at the bottom of the screen, in a real old Western font, the number of his run would appear. This reminded me of a mission start to Grand theft Auto or a beginning new chapter in a book. I felt this was an interesting method of resetting the tone from prior scenes. Kudos Clint.
Overall the movie is very honest. No crazy twist twist. No cliffhanging endings. You get what you see. And for the most part I respect that. Don’t go in expecting it to be the next Sicario like i did. Which I’ll explain next on why I couldn’t’ give this film a 5/5 star rating.
The bad:
Not all was charming in the adventure of old’ Earl stone. Action was lacking…badly. First half of the film felt like a lead up to bigger and better things but never managed to raise the bar any higher in terms of expectations. Now, yes, I understand Clint Eastwood is 88 years old and is very limited in his mobile capabilities but aside from two maybe three, scenes there is very little actual action in the entire film. No Cartel-esque murders. Not much killing if any. I at least expected something to come from the cops perspective but to my displeasure there was not much there either. And speaking of the cops -they just sat around watching things for most of the film. Bradley Cooper never seemed to actually act. I felt he was just being himself the whole movie which took me out of the story a few times. It was easy to see the movie wanted to remedy this apparent lack of action problem buy attempting to create gripping moments of suspense, but these moments never lasted longer than a minute or two and was usually interrupted by an ill timed joke. This would have been fine had it not been for a pretty cool trailer that made it seem like this movie was going to be buried in action. From the shots of a bloodied up Earl in his car to the cops and helicopters racing on and over the freeways. The trailer kind of lied I feel.
Another, and the biggest, problem I had with this film is how certain, important, things were left unresolved. This is no exaggeration. Major characters that played pivotal roles in Earl’s story and even had their own backstories, vanished completely in the last act of the film. Just disappeared and never came back. No talk or mention about what happened to them. How can that be?? The last act of the film felt a bit rushed and it made me wonder if it was a budget issue or something else as to why they didn’t write proper endings for these characters.Why go through all the bother to explore the depths oof these individuals if you never planned to give them their own three act setup. Terrible waste of talent in my opinion.
Also, the movie’s ending provided no detail on Earl or other characters after the movie ended. Usually for movies based on real life events you see a paragraph of white text explaining character conclusions afterward. Nope. Movie ends and that is that. This left a stale taste in my mouth because I wanted more on this story and info on peoples whereabouts right then and there. But there’s always Wikipedia I guess.
Rating and Final thoughts
★★★ – 3/5
Clint Eastwood was the most enjoyable part of this film, truly. If I ever watch it again it will solely be because of his portrayal of Earl stone. Dialogue for everyone was great. Props to the writers. Filming locations were beautiful and the darker colored style of filming was easy on the eyes.
The movie itself missed opportunities with their great cast to put on some very tense scenes and I think this may be a reason the film doesn’t receive an Oscar. If it does i’d be rather surprised. There just isn’t a BAM! moment in the film anywhere. Nothing sticks out to me.
I think most will enjoy the film. It’s a good “Anything good playing at the theater, honey?” type of film. Mellow enough for those not seeking harsh violence. Funny and Crass enough for those looking for a witty, good time.
Would I see it again in theaters? No, but I will watch it again once it comes to DVD.
Blackmagination 