Hell or High Water

Plot: Ex-con Tanner (Ben Foster) and his younger brother Toby (Chris Pine) rob Texas Midland bank branches to keep Texas Midland bank from foreclosing on their dead mother's ranch. Texas Ranger's Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto (Gil Birmingham) wise-crack their way through west Texas trying to catch Tanner and Toby, leading to a climatic scene with high power rifles. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: .This is a drama between brothers and between cops. There are great dialog scenes and three good action scenes, the initial bank robbery, the last bank robbery and Tanner's last stand. All of those were tense and exciting. The dialog was good too, but it takes a while to see past the Texas toughness to the people underneath.

Clearly, the Texas Midland Bank is evil doer in the eyes of the movie, and no one thinks that the family should be evicted. The boys and the bank are both evil. The Texas Rangers are only after the boys.

The movie seems to justify the killing in the name of keeping a poor family on its land, and that doesn't seen right to me. Perhaps the innocent people died by accident, but that is far worse than being evicted for not paying a bank loan back.

Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birminham

Directed by: English director David Mackenzie

The Music: Good music

The Visuals: Some good art direction in the various sets. I liked the trailers. There are some artsy shots of the countryside too. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Good dialog with a thoughtful story.

More [SPOILER]: The ending between Ranger Marcus and Toby is unclear. I choose to believe that Marcus never sees Toby again, and Toby continues to try to do the right thing with his family.

Even More: This movie was filmed in two and a half weeks. Very fast.

There were no sets; all locations and little farm house.

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