Hell and High Water
Jeff Bridges is a tough but wheezing old Texas Ranger with his sidekick Ranger Alberto who he keeps teasing with Indian and other insults. His adversaries are two brothers, one, an ex-con, and the younger other one, a disillusioned rancher who has seen his mother die. A reverse mortgage from Texas Midands Bank has ensured that the bank is destined to inherit the family's remaining assets through the grace of an inadequate reverse mortgage the bank funded. Despite what Fred Thompson used to say, that is indeed the purpose of reverse mortgages.
Both men set out to avenge the wrong, and who better to make pay than the bank itself. It's a decent cops and robbers film. Although an M-4 style AR-15 features prominently in the movie trailers, in reality all the damage is done with pistols but mostly with a bolt action sporting rifle. The AR is just a noisemaker. Filmed in New Mexico it does a good job of depicting ranch and oilfield poverty and it looks like West Texas, although some of the other towns mentioned are closer to North Central Texas. The Texans depicted in the towns, banks, and eateries are 100 percent authentic good ol' boys.
It's entertaining and only slightly grossly bloody, at the end. Good boys' night out flick. Interesting point: most of the audience was white hairs?!!
Two other films coming:
First, the Battle of Hacksaw Ridge about a CO medic's tribulations in basic infantry training and his subsequent heroism in the fighting on Okinawa. It's directed by Mel Gibson.
Second, Deserto, about Mexican immigrants crossing southwestern deserts, only to be hunted down by a nasty American with a pickup and attack dog; also armed with a sporterized, scoped M-1 Garand. It's a nasty looking movie, probably at least in part politically motivated. Hate to see a Garand so desecrated.
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