*Hickok (2017) D: Timothy Woodward Jr S: Luke Hemsworth, Tracy Adkins, Kris Kristofferson Western (USA)
Everything about this film is Safe and it’s a the total poor relation to everything that is great about westerns. *sigh* I tried pretty hard to get into it, but it’s charmless, heartless.. pointless… Hemsworth has a lot to live up to and tried way too hard to be and not be his brother, he really needed to make his mind up there, but seeing great names like Bruce Dern and Kris K, I’d have expected the whole bar to have been raised, not just their minute scenes.
So it’s another rendition of Wild Bill Hickok, the vagabond made sheriff in a lawless town, one man who stood against many and the good guy who always wins through the speed of his gun or his cunning and charming personality. So Hickok is caught in the act several times, and hitches a ride on a train, holding up an innocent man for his ticket, it turns out to be an old friend, he bounces from one pot of good luck to another, does some fancy shooting then finds the love of his life, while trying to woo her, and destroy her partner he also puts a town to rights, he sounds like a busy guy… and he is. There are so many pointless plot lines that it’s hard to keep up with what should be going on.
It doesn’t have any style of depth, it’s just small clips that are stuck together trying to tell a story, Adkins is a stark reminder that it could easily pass as a back drop for a country music video rather than packing in some action and tension to really capture the imagination it’s all watered down into mush. 3/10
So after getting through this mess of a film I kept the desert theme going, ideally I wanted to watch Appaloosa but then I remembered Rene I look like a foot’s old face and decided on…
Broken Horses (2015) D: Vidhu Vinod Chopra S : Anton Yelchin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Chris Marquette Drama/Crime/Action (USA).
The first time I saw this movie was the day before Yelchin passed away, so it has taken me this long to get back to any of his films, I didn’t really rate him as an actor until I saw this. I love it, it’s such an vibrant and diversified story. The kind I really like. A couple of brothers take on two very different lives after the murder of their father, one moves out of his small town (Yelchin) and joins that orchestra, he becomes refined but deep down he feels the need to protect his brother who is a bit on the simple side, on his arrival he finds that his brother is being used by a local gang, as a makeshift hitman, point him in the right direction and let his animal strength and lack of reasoning go and he’s a brutal killing machine, Yelchin tries his best to edge his brother out of the influence of these petty gangsters and gets caught up with a Mexican border gang war.
The bromace is wonderful in this little drama, the action and violence is handled well, a little too well at times, there is a particular scene where Yelchin has to go across the border to strike a bargain, and the tension and masterful workings of that scene remind me such powerful films like The Godfather / Infernal Affairs 2.
Thomas Jane is credited but to break the spell, he dies in the introduction scenes so if you’re a fan don’t get your hopes up. Sadly I was just about getting my hopes up that Yelch
7/10
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