Cry Macho (2021) - Movie Review

Before we actually get into the film in question, I need to get into the circumstances by which I saw this film in the first place. Partly as a means of full disclosure, but mainly because this is something of a first for this blog.

So, I got an email from one of NBCUniversal’s publicists, who offered me an in-season pass to this film for a review. That itself isn’t the unique part; this is actually fairly standard for most of the assignments I get from FilmInk. Except this isn’t through FilmInk. For whatever reason, the publicist contacted me directly to arrange this. As much as I want to crack jokes about how desperate they must be for official write-ups if they’re reaching out to this middle-of-nowhere blog for a review, or that they obviously didn’t see my last review for an Eastwood movie if they were expecting a glowing endorsement… man, getting recognised like this after all these years makes me quite happy, and I’d like to extend my thanks to Universal for reaching out. Although bear in mind that I’m not going to let that colour my opinion of the film itself.

Had I not been contacted and essentially given a free ticket to see this, I likely would have skipped over this feature entirely. I’m basically done with Clint Eastwood at this point. I don’t know how much more I can take of the guy trying to take down bogeymen only he can see (like he did at the Republican National Convention in 2012). I don’t want to see more from Mr. “My god is bigger than your statistics”. But hey, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I went and saw the movie… and was thankful that it was nothing like the material I’ve come to associate with the filmmaker in recent years.

Richard Jewell (2020) - Movie Review

I find myself in a bit of an awkward position with this one. This is another one of those situations where, while watching the film and as I left the cinema, I found myself quite liking what I just saw, even if I could definitely see some flaws with it. But in-between that point and sitting down to write this review, that opinion has… changed. It has soured. It has gotten to the stage where I feel like I have some fire in my belly about this film, who made it, and what purpose it ultimately serves. Not gonna lie, I’m going for the throat with this one because I am not happy.

The Mule (2019) - Movie Review

After the tumultuous trainwreck that was last year’s 15:17 To Paris, I’ll admit that I was somewhat hesitant to see what Clint Eastwood had in store for his next feature. I mean, I’ve gone on record about how I don’t exactly agree with his politics, but I’m still willing to admit that when he has the right material, he can pull through with some genuinely moving cinema. And with him teaming up again with writer Nick Schenk, the scribe for one of Eastwood’s true classics with Gran Torino, and stepping back into the lead role for the first time since that effort, this at least has the potential to be a step back in the right direction. Well, as I’ll get into, this definitely works… although I question some of the aspects it ends up aiming for.

The 15:17 To Paris (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: On an afternoon train from Amsterdam to Paris, U.S. soldiers Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos, along with their best friend Anthony Sadler, encounter a terrorist ready to kill everyone on-board. As they get ready to take him down, Spencer recollects what led him to this moment, from his school days to his military training to the brief instances before this very moment that would make him and his friends into heroes.

Sully (2016) - Movie Review

American Sniper (2015) - Movie Review

I always feel good when I end up reviewing a film that involves a certain degree of controversy; it almost guarantees that I’ll piss someone off. Okay, that might be a little too cynical (even for me) but weighing in on films like this is still interesting in seeing how people will end up reacting. However, this is different to when I went after God’s Not Dead and for a couple of reasons. For one, I don’t have as strong a stance on the subject matter in question so I am far less likely to get as heated when talking about it, so hopefully I won’t be going on any massive rants here like I did in that review. That might end up making this less entertaining to read, but it’s not like that’s stopped me any other time I’ve written something on here.