Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Mike Lengel Hell or High Water is a grandly human film. Out of quintessential American hardship, two reckless yet earnest Texan brothers are on a daring mission to settle financial debt and provide for kin. On their heels are two equally earnest and driven Texas Rangers, bound by code of law and mutual respect. The parties are destined to clash in a gritty, nothing-to-lose showdown to the rugged, poverty-stricken, yet mesmerizing backdrop of Southwest America.Toby and Tanner unite in brotherhood and pain to form a well-oiled bank robbing machine. They ignite the film's first heist and display their simple dynamic. Tanner charges forward with a courteous, no-nonsense fury while Toby anchors the rear. The brothers juxtapose each other and harmonize a deep, reckless aggression with soundness of heart and humility as they plot their path to financial and emotional payback.Texas Rangers Marcus and Alberto pry themselves eagerly from their desk chairs to spearhead the chase of the common criminal and old-fashioned glory of taming wild. Marcus, on the brink of retirement, hides the pain of wanting to leave his mark and contribution with cynicism and sullenness. He takes the reigns as chief communicator with the witnesses, who all want their piece of the action, while Alberto absorbs the jives and insults his counterpart hurls with calm and cool. Toby and Tanner blaze forward with adrenal force, raiding by day and settling in the pleasures of gambling, sex, and beer to unwind, while Marcus and Alberto pick up the pieces and plot capture over steaks and untimely Christian rock. A haunting emotional soundtrack weaves us across the desolate Southwest towards a guns-blazing showdown, where brother and Ranger are tested in strength of will and love for one another. A masterfully simple screenplay evokes the pains and laughs of being human, and melds beautifully with fine acting, gritty cinematography, and melancholy music to produce a fantastic film.

jonathan-harris17 On the face of it this is a standard cops-and-robbers bank heist tale, with a chalk/cheese pair of protagonists and a cliche edge-of-retirement lawman to give chase.The script here though is sharper than your average. Jeff Bridges (on form) as the lawman, pulls out zingers a-plenty and there's generally plenty of black humour to go around. A deft melding of the ol' Slow West (gun) stock with a modern layering of dead-end ghost towns and bank foreclosures: the huge Texan landscapes & skies, both entirely empty, the camera snaps up whenever the opportunity arises, the moody score (when not dipping into Country-Rock) and dialogue all contributing to the very definite feel of a moody mourning, like something in this world is lost or broken.Old fashioned American film-making, albeit from a Scottish director, I found this is a little lethargic to get going but by the end I was completely sold.

Robert J. Maxwell Two rambunctious young fellows decide to rob the Midlands Bank of Texas that's threatening to foreclose on their pitiful and unproductive little cattle ranch. One of the boys (Chris Pine) is notably less rambunctious than his older brother (Ben Foster), who has just left the slams after a six-year vacation there. Foster is thrilled with the banditry, whoops with delight as they zigzag away from the banks, leaving a cloud of dust. Pine loves his brother but believes him to be a little nuts. Pine has spent the last year or so caring at home for their dying mother. "This the bed she was in?" asks Foster, on seeing the empty bed for the first time. "Well, Eff it. She didn't care much for me anyhow." (A pragmatist.) As the two reckless boys set about their task, usually planned, but one entirely spontaneous, we meet the other side of the law -- Jeff Bridges as a casual old Texas Ranger on the brink of retirement, and his Comanche deputy and sidekick, Gil Birmingham, whom Bridges is always teasing about his Indianness -- catching the robbers with voodoo, eating pemmican, and the like.In contrast to the robbers, Bridges kind of slouches around, takes his time to think things over, and exercises his fulgurating intuition to anticipate their next move.I don't want to get into the plot in any more detail. It's a good movie. It rings true. The location shooting in New Mexico is evocative. The characters -- even the most minor -- are colorful. The story itself is credible, with moments comedy alternating with those carrying the tension of a coiled spring. It certainly seems right as a picture of small-town Texas. It owes a lot, I suspect, to the wildly successful "Fargo" that preceded it by a few years but I don't care. If all imitations were this good I'd start drinking almond flavored soy milk instead of the real thing.

writingferret Meh. Very weirdly convoluted and stretched out way of conveying what ended up being an extremely simplistic and actually quite boring story. Characters and acting were okay enough to be worth watching if you're otherwise bored, but if you miss the entire plot, you haven't missed much. If you're sensitive to offhand racial digs, don't bother.