Hell or High Water (2016)

“Hell or High Water” stars Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Gil Birmingham.  Released on August 12, 2016, the film is about two brothers who plan on robbing banks in order to save their family farm while a Texas Ranger sets out on a mission to arrest them.

The film is directed by David Mackenzie, who also directed films such as Spread, Perfect Sense, and Starred Up.  I was waiting for this film to come out since I first saw a trailer for it, which looked very nice.  The fact that it received such a large number of praise kind of surprised me.  I know it sounds pretty dumb when I said it, but is this film, which had a pretty good cast, really that good?  The best way to answer that question was for me to see it for myself.

Pros:
Solid performances from the cast, including Bridges and Foster.

The cinematography was well-executed.

Good screenplay.

Direction was OK.

Cons:
The story felt like a simple wild goose chase.  Nothing too special about it.

Could’ve used more character depth.

The third act was a bit underwhelming.

Final thoughts: “Hell or High Water” is a nice-looking heist film with a talented cast and its remarkable cinematography.  Unfortunately, its story failed to offer any surprising depth or strong character relationships to make itself more memorable.  In other words, I didn’t understand the amount of praise this film is getting, but I thought it was decent.  If you’re expecting me to love it, I’m really sorry.  I just don’t see this film the same way you guys did.  Maybe if I watch it again sometime, I might be able to understand, but until then, all I can say about this film is that I was a little impressed with it.  I would definitely recommend it in terms of the cast and cinematography.

B-