Plot: An elderly horticulturist finds an alternative source of income by transporting drugs for a Mexican cartel.

If there's someone you can rely on for a good solid piece of entertainment, then Clint Eastwood is your director.


His style is very traditional and while end product is extremely conventional and traditional, it still brings solid results.


While I feel his last great film was Gran Torino in 2008, Eastwood has still directed some good stuff including Invictus, American Sniper (fake baby aside) and Sully. Now, he is still making films despite approaching his 90th birthday.


The marketing certainly a vibe of being a spiritual follow-up to Gran Torino, and those feelings remain once I saw the film.


It does everything you expect some Eastwood. The first act clearly shows what we're getting ourselves into and the predicament our various characters are in.
For the rest of the film, I just felt in safe hands having a very pleasant despite it never challenging me or dramatically moving me emotionally. Sometimes you just want something to cleanse the palate per say.


Clint Eastwood did a good job in this. He gives us a character that might not be as crude or racist as his in Gran Torino, we still get someone that is out of time with modern customs and pleasantries. However, I found him engaging and a story arch that was fun to follow.
I enjoyed his chemistry with Dianne West especially towards the end as well as Alison Eastwood.
There were a few miscasts in my opinion. Outside of one nice interaction scene with Clint, I did not feel the need for Bradley Cooper to be cast. His characters development felt very ordinary and never went beyond the basics of explaining to the audiences his characters drive.
I would say exactly the same for Laurence Fishburne and Michael Pena.


Despite not having any real negatives, it's lack of strong or exceptional aspects in the end just made this another solid piece of work. The story is perfectly engaging as our the characters involved, it moves along nicely, it gets tense when it needs to and has enough memorable moments for it to be worth watching again.


I can see plenty of people enjoying this. Eastwood has always had a style that plays to the masses and this is another welcomed addition to his already large back catalogue.


Rating: 7/10