Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Movie Review: True Grit

When True Grit initially came out I didn’t have any intention of seeing it (mostly because I’m not that big a fan of westerns) but, and this is my reason for seeing a lot of movies these days, heard a lot of people say they like it and the school was showing it (“Bum a dollar, catch a movie”) so hey, why not?

True Grit
 

Summary: Mattie's father has just been killed by Tom Chaney and, since the law isn’t in a hurry to track him down and bring him to justice, she decides the only thing to do is hire a bounty hunter to track him down and witness the deed herself.

The Good: That was a funnier movie than I expected with wittier dialogue. Mattie was amazing in the early parts of the movie, simply storming in and intimidating all the adults into doing what they needed to do, and everyone else important in the movie got their fair share of good lines too. I found myself giggling quite a bit at the lines and the movie was worth a dollar alone for that dialogue, someone had quite a bit of fun writing this movie.

The Bad: The final charge of the good guys versus the bad guys was cheesey as all hell, you knew it was coming but that didn’t help it. Also thought the ending was overdramatic (to say more would be spoilerish) but events like that do come with the genre. Also, I had a really hard time understanding why Mattie HAD to come along to see her father’s murderer killed. In the end she wasn’t that useful in a fight and just seemed to cause friction, the story might have been better if she was a bit older and could actually shoot in a fight.

The Music: Didn’t really notice anything special about the music here. It was certainly there but it merely blended into the background to help the show, it didn't stand out so much as to be actually noticeable.

The Visuals: Nothing that special about the visuals as well. They were there, they worked, but they didn’t go anything amazing. The setting in the towns looked authentic and the shots of the prairie looked good too, although I was really surprised we didn't see any Native Americans in the movie (especially since the characters says they’re going into Indian Territory, is it too much to ask for a minor P.O.C. character?). 



So, while I have no intention of owning this movie or seeing it again anytime soon, it was well worth a dollar and I'm happy I saw it now. Doesn't really make me want to see other Westerns either,  guess I'll have a different kind of movie to post next time then.