"HELL OR HIGH WATER" PRESENTS OMINOUS WEAKNESS IN TAYLOR SHERIDAN SCRIPTING

Movie Review - HELL OR HIGH WATER [2016] - [R] - Hulu - Directed by David Mackenzie. Screenplay and writing by Taylor Sheridan. A Lionsgate film. Starring Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Gil Birmingham. With a budget of $12M, the film brought in a little over $34M since it's release up to date. It has been noted that both parents of the director died during the films production, but their deaths didn't hinder filming.

Two “Texas Cowboy” brothers [Pine and Foster] set off on a trail of bank robberies, hitting a specific brand of West Texas banks that were responsible for making their dying mother's life even more stressful by threatening to foreclose on her property, denying her future grand children a prosperous future in potential oil mining on the property. The brothers travel to Oklahoma to launder the money after each heist and then return to Texas to continue hitting other banks. During their crime spree, two Texas Rangers [Bridges and Birmingham] step up to investigate the robberies and close in on the duo who have suddenly started to leave dead bodies in their wake.

THE GOOD - Location spotting for the film was a complete surprise as I actually believed that the production produced the entire film in West Texas, when it was actually shot in Clovis, NM. This is one of Pines better movie roles where he doesn't portray an idiot trying to figure things out as the film goes along; instead, Pine is intelligent and delivers a solid performance that I was actually impressed with. The action scenes and few fire fights are well delivered and orchestrated in realistic intensity. Special Kudos goes out to the best scene in the film where a waitress - played by Margaret Bowman - presents a now notorious performance at a T-Bone steakhouse.

THE BAD - The pacing to the film is all over the place. The screenplay is atrocious and the pattern of character development, even though sometimes brilliant with a few secondary and glorified extras, Taylor fails to develop a few characters who are intentionally killed off for "shock value" and instead deliver their deaths with an unexpected thud. Bridges seems to have plateaued in his style/methods of acting, especially while delivering his lines between his teeth and often making his dialog a little difficult to understand.

POST MORTEM - Taylor has proven time and time again that he has the ability to create scripts that have a ton of flair [or flash], so long as there are big names involved in their production, women to disrespect, and high stakes to procure. However, even though all of his stories start off strong, they land flat when the time comes to bring the film to end and give  a solid climax to the ending and this film is no exception. It's quite obvious that Taylor loves many of the characters he creates on script and has a hard time making the big decision to see some of them fail or get killed off; so many times in his film productions the bad guys often win or get away. His scripts are truly transparent and he often feels the need to hype his movies (and series) up with big explosions and fancy "military style" shoot outs. It’s no wonder why many of his television shows are falling apart now.

⭐️⭐️💫[2.5 of 5 Stars]

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES THRIVES WITH FANTASY, ACTION

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Honor Among Thieves [2023] - [PG13] - Paramount+ - Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. Story by Chris McKay and Michael Gillo. Stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Rene-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant. Bradley Cooper has a small part in this film, and I write that with a humorous zing to it.

This movie is an action packed, detailed fantasy film that covers a story about a pair of thieves who learn about a mystical gizmo that can bring back people who have died. The lead character, Edgin Darvis [played by Pine] - a musician and thief - who is also a "planner" that has great foresight in planning capers on the run, enlists the aide of a few thieves to assist him steal the gizmo to bring his wife back from the dead, and with the additional help of his close partner Holga Kilgore [played by Rodriguez], to break into a castle that is controlled by Forge Fitzwilliam [played by Grant] and protected by a mystic sorcerer [played by Daisey Head]. There are monsters, dragons, gargoyles, wizards; everything you expect to see in a film based on the D&D medium that has been around for many years.

THE GOOD - The special effect CGI is mind boggling, refreshing and very well designed to bring both a dark and humorous presentation to an overplayed genre of monster designs that help the movie move along in a positive direction; i.e. keep a look out for the plumply dragon that slides about a cavern on it's belly. The action scenes are choreographed well and not over payed. Also, being a fantasy movie, there are several solid comedic performances by the cast as they come across several challenges they must overcome at each new issue that arises at each turn. The movie flows seamlessly from one scene to another, with some interesting editing that keeps the viewers attention in tune to each new scene.

THE BAD - I'm not a big Chris Pine fan or follower, and he does has several moments of grandstanding and over playing his part in the film. Where usually I add that too much CGI can be too much to absorb, remember that this is a fantsy based film and you have to suspend belief to follow it along. If you put your mindset in that arena, the film is brilliant. If you can't, you'll agree that this film is full of cheese.

POST MORTEM - This is a good, fun film. Even though a lot of the CGI used in the film lacks the cutting edge delivery to make a ground breaking breakthrough in film production, the two directors did a diligent job in presenting a fantasy film moving in the right direction. This is a fun film to watch and laugh with at every turn.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]