7.5/10 After the massively disappointing and failed “The 15:17 to Paris”, Clint Eastwood quickly rebounded when he decided to make this film. At age 88, Clint Eastwood started filming this in June of 2018 and within six months put it out in theaters for audiences. For anyone who knows about what a lengthy process film making is, to go through production and post production in six months is insanely fast and impressive. But did the finished product live up to the hype of how quickly it was made? Yes, and no. Overall, this is a good film that I recommend seeing. It is based on a fascinating true story of a 90-year-old drug runner whom ran drugs for cartels and got away with it for quite some time. Eastwood comes back yet again from his retirement from acting but is perfectly cast for this role. Even with his age really showing, he delivers an emotional performance and assembles an impressive supporting cast who all put in strong work. The film has strong pacing, a plot turn or two that I didn’t see coming and an emotional core behind it all. That being said, there are still a few problems with the film. Whenever a film is based on a true story, you can’t/shouldn’t change too much to stretch the truth and do whatever you want for the sake of adding tension and/or drama. So I would complain that the end of the film is pretty anti-climactic while also recognizing that they could make up some huge climactic ending that didn’t fit in with the reality of what happened. The cinematography, editing, score and direction are all rather generic and straight forward, which is fine but it makes the final result not very memorable. There are definitely some surprisingly funny moments courtesy of Clint Eastwood’s character and how politically incorrect he is. Although he doesn’t reach the politically incorrect levels of his “Gran Torino” character, it is refreshing to see a Hollywood film where a character is written to speak his mind like an actual 90-year-old would, instead of SJWs coming in and taking anything that might be deemed even mildly offensive out of the script. Some of the law enforcement characters, while interesting to follow, don’t have much in the way of character development and can be bland at times. In the end, this isn’t on the level of something similar like “Traffic” or “Sicario” but the interesting plot, refreshing humor, pacing and strong performances make this film a drug worth taking.
#ACzarIsBorn / #MuletideGreetings / #TheDEATeam / #ForAFewHaulersMore / #AWrinkleInCrime / #TheOldManAndTheRun
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