True Grit (2010)
Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and adventure on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.
Watched this movie and I'm trying to figure out how websites such as rottentomatoes.com gave this an A rating essentially. This was not a good movie and didn't keep you much at all entertained. It wasn't the worse thing made recently I just wanted it to be better than it was. 5/10
How can the Coen bros. claim to have written the screenplay? The dialog is the same, word for word, as the original except for the last 5 minutes. The original's scenery was amazingly beautiful, not as cold and dark as this version. In my opinion all they've done is taken a fantastic 43 year old movie that was made before most viewers were born and the rest have forgotten, changed the last 5 minutes of the dialog and claimed it's the best picture they've made yet. If I knew it was that easy I would have tried it myself... Don't take credit that ain't yourn you goat rope'n sons a guns!! John Wayne's turning in his grave.
Deaite all the hype about this being one of the greatest Coen movies, it is not. Yes there are some worthy performances and the cinematography is good, but overall I was pretty disappointed with the Coen Bros. True Grit venture. First off, it is apparent that someone who was involved in this film, be it the Coens or Spielberg, must have been pretty impressed with the idiomatic expressions and stylized language of the day as seen on the HBO serices, Deadwood. Sure its pretty neat to see even the basest criminal low lifes of the day speak in an educated almost legalese way of speaking. Its also pretty impressive that a very young actress can precociously deliver these types of lines with panache and precision, but a good deal of the story is wasted on trying to impress us with all this 19th century jargon. The need to force these linguistic acrobatics down our gullet results in a poorly paced Coen bros. movies. Known for being usually languid and deliberate in storytelling, True Grit seems stilted and rushed Very little time is therefore left for any type of character development or evolution, even though this is supposedly a shoot em up Western, we are lurched about in the actual action scenes as if somebody who was caught up trying to impress us with the florid language forgot about the actual story. The pace of the denouement seems hurried and patchwork in the end with somewhat of an amputated ending. Although Jeff delivers a very convincing Cogburn, his performance seems a little force as well. In the same manner that this movie seems derivative of Deadwood, Jeff Bridges may have borrowed a little something from Billy Bob in Slingblade the way he coldly recounts his many kills.
This movie left me nothing short of depressed on New Years Day. There is nothing uplifting that happens. The premise is lack luster. I didn't expect it to be funny, but I could have stayed home & listened to the news to get depressed.
