The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown
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Hell or High Water
Director
David Mackenzie, 2016
Starring
Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gil Birmingham
Trivia
Knives Out - Jacob's line "You had sex with my grandpa, you dirty anchor baby!" was improvised by Jaeden Martell, but it was originally lost in the scene since multiple characters were talking and yelling. Michael Shannon noticed this and approached Rian Johnson, telling him that Martell had a killer line, so they made sure to go back and capture it.
Hell or High Water - The phrase "come hell or high water" typically means "do whatever needs to be done, no matter the circumstances". It also refers to the "hell or high water clause" in a contract, usually a lease, which states that the payments must continue regardless of any difficulties the paying party may encounter. Both definitions apply to different parts of the plot in this movie.
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Seen and liked both, although neither made my ballot. Knives Out is well written and fun, with a good cast. Hell or High Water is entertaining, intelligent, and well directed with great performances.
Seen: 24/28
Seen: 24/28
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Knives Out
Read the full review here.
Hell or High Water
Read the full review here.
Knives Out
Johnson's beautifully crafted screenplay actually combines the birthday party, the death, and the initial questioning of the party guests into one brilliant story arc that demands complete attention of the viewer so that the viewer understands that complete attention to these opening scenes are going to be absolutely no use in figuring out what's going on here. At the halfway point where we think everything has been revealed and we know exactly what's going on, but again, we are proven wrong. Red herrings abound throughout this fantastic laugh-filled roller coaster of a mystery, some are of use and some are not, but they are important contributions to keeping the viewer in the dark until the final reel, as they should be.
Hell or High Water
The action is spread throughout the movie with the various bank robberies, a fight that occurs when a couple of young punks stupidly taunt one of the brothers at a convenience store, and car chases as the brothers speed out of town. The lawmen's scenes are more laid-back but never dull as their priorities in life come out during their conversations. Their styles of working a case somewhat differently come out during their road trips and their stops along the way. The supporting characters are all great, some providing wry humor, especially the crabby old waitress the lawmen meet up with. The cinematography is beautiful all along the way, whether it be in the scrub brush riddled countryside of Texas (actually New Mexico), or the small, sleepy towns along the way, with the beautiful paintbrush of the photography really bringing the color of these locations to vivid life. The soundtrack, with the hard-edged country songs playing, are perfect for whatever is happening onscreen, whether the lyrics go along with the scene or not...the music is the key and it's perfect. There's nary a wasted moment in the movie. Every scene adds to the story from start to finish. A great movie.
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mark f
Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019) -7/10
Ya think?
Ya think?
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016) +
Brothers Chris Pine and Ben Foster plan to do what they have to to save their family's West Texas home.
Brothers Chris Pine and Ben Foster plan to do what they have to to save their family's West Texas home.
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Also, the people who guessed The Town were on the right track with the hint. You all just picked the wrong bank robbery film.
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Haven't seen Hell or High Water but I enjoyed the heck out of the first Knives Out movie.
It didn't make my ballot though.
It didn't make my ballot though.
Two more seen, and finally, another from my ballot!
Hell or High Water was my #20. Love the realistic approach to the robberies, the film looks great, is well acted and is fun to rewatch. Highly entertaining!
Knives Out was one of the last flicks I cut. Great stuff, with a water-tight screenplay.
Seen 18/28
Hell or High Water was my #20. Love the realistic approach to the robberies, the film looks great, is well acted and is fun to rewatch. Highly entertaining!
Knives Out was one of the last flicks I cut. Great stuff, with a water-tight screenplay.
Seen 18/28
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I'm not sure that Shutter Island is much less of a theme park ride than a Marvel movie, really. A lot of cgi and over the top everything. I even found an old review where I described it as like Jurassic Park but with crazy people instead of dinosaurs. I can't imagine that either the story or the cgi (or the treatment of mental illness) can have aged well.
Knives Out was ok. Wes Anderson's Poirot was my first impression. I thought it could do with some more twists. Ana de Armas was great but her character was a bit bland. And the vomiting thing was stupid. Everyone involved is obviously having a lot of fun but I wasn't having as much fun as them.
Knives Out was ok. Wes Anderson's Poirot was my first impression. I thought it could do with some more twists. Ana de Armas was great but her character was a bit bland. And the vomiting thing was stupid. Everyone involved is obviously having a lot of fun but I wasn't having as much fun as them.
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No votes. I've seen Knives Out a couple of times and think it's passable - definitely more appreciable in theory than in practice even though we could always use an excuse to have a solid ensemble bounce off each other amidst a twisty plot. Hell or High Water is another "watch once and never think about it again" kind of movie.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
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Seen Knives Out. Really enjoyed it, even if the reveal is given away way too early.
Have not seen Hell or High Water yet.
No votes
Have not seen Hell or High Water yet.
No votes
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I like both films quite a bit, but I didn't vote for either. I'd likely give the edge to Knives Out.
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Just out of curiousity, how many other people still haven't had one of their picks show up yet? I kind of want to start guessing when it'll happen but now that I've said that it'll probably be in the next set of reveals.
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Knives Out & Hell or High Water...seen both and wasn't too excited about either of them. They were OK.
Knives Out (Rian Johnson2019)
With an ecliptic cast of talented actors and a set-up reminiscent of Clue (1985)...I expected to love Knives Out as I spent time with a misfit, argumentative family who are suspected of murder. It sounded fun.
Knives Out is nothing that hasn't been done many times before and not nearly as funny as that poster would seem to suggest. What's funny is that the movie referenced Clue, which is a wildly funny who-done-it mystery movie, to bad Knives Out falls way short of that board game to movie classic, Clue.
Knives Out has this cool collection of knives arranged in a circular pattern on a grid that makes for a interesting backdrop, but with 2 hours 10 minutes the characters themselves didn't get to shine and aren't all that interesting. The film could've been shortened by 20-30 minutes as the murder mystery itself ran out of steam, thus evoking padding so that the magic 2 hour+ runtime could be achieved. And Daniel Craig's southern accent, ugh very distracting.
No real complaints here, just not all that interesting and I'm not sure I seen anything that could be described as funny.
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie 2016)
Hell or High Water has a little something for everyone, which can be a strength, or a weakness.
Strengths: Beautiful scenery and cinematography. The camera work is done with an eye to the composition of the shot. When coupled with the stunningly stark beauty of Texas and processed with a warm yellow color tone the film looks great. Hint...that ain't Texas! The entire film was shot in New Mexico. But fair enough, it looked like Texas to me.
The film almost makes a sympathetic case for the two bank robbing brothers, setting up their story like a modern day Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. We learn that the small Texas town has a corrupt bank system that the locals disdain and that the locals are none to eager to help the law find these two bandits.
Weakness: Is the over the top shootout that comes towards the film's climax. Oh...and I get it, for the movie to make money it has to have some big guns and even bigger explosions and so it does!...but it was never a shoot em up movie in the fist place, so it was disappointing it ended that way.
I must say I wasn't a fan of the racial taunting of the Indian/Mexican Ranger (Gil Birmingham) by his fellow partner (Jeff Bridges). Bridges plays a crusty old Ranger about to retire from the force, and he enjoy nothing more than taunting his half Indian partner. Of course this is suppose to show the audiences that he really likes his partner and it's suppose to be funny to boot, all while setting up the ending.
Well, it's not funny to here a ton of racial slurs and it's been done before way to often...which makes it cliched, over used troupe. To me it seemed like lazy script writing. With some script changes this could have been an exceptional film.
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Knives Out (Rian Johnson2019)
Knives Out is nothing that hasn't been done many times before and not nearly as funny as that poster would seem to suggest. What's funny is that the movie referenced Clue, which is a wildly funny who-done-it mystery movie, to bad Knives Out falls way short of that board game to movie classic, Clue.
Knives Out has this cool collection of knives arranged in a circular pattern on a grid that makes for a interesting backdrop, but with 2 hours 10 minutes the characters themselves didn't get to shine and aren't all that interesting. The film could've been shortened by 20-30 minutes as the murder mystery itself ran out of steam, thus evoking padding so that the magic 2 hour+ runtime could be achieved. And Daniel Craig's southern accent, ugh very distracting.
No real complaints here, just not all that interesting and I'm not sure I seen anything that could be described as funny.
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie 2016)
Strengths: Beautiful scenery and cinematography. The camera work is done with an eye to the composition of the shot. When coupled with the stunningly stark beauty of Texas and processed with a warm yellow color tone the film looks great. Hint...that ain't Texas! The entire film was shot in New Mexico. But fair enough, it looked like Texas to me.
The film almost makes a sympathetic case for the two bank robbing brothers, setting up their story like a modern day Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. We learn that the small Texas town has a corrupt bank system that the locals disdain and that the locals are none to eager to help the law find these two bandits.
Weakness: Is the over the top shootout that comes towards the film's climax. Oh...and I get it, for the movie to make money it has to have some big guns and even bigger explosions and so it does!...but it was never a shoot em up movie in the fist place, so it was disappointing it ended that way.
I must say I wasn't a fan of the racial taunting of the Indian/Mexican Ranger (Gil Birmingham) by his fellow partner (Jeff Bridges). Bridges plays a crusty old Ranger about to retire from the force, and he enjoy nothing more than taunting his half Indian partner. Of course this is suppose to show the audiences that he really likes his partner and it's suppose to be funny to boot, all while setting up the ending.
Well, it's not funny to here a ton of racial slurs and it's been done before way to often...which makes it cliched, over used troupe. To me it seemed like lazy script writing. With some script changes this could have been an exceptional film.
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Another two-fer I haven't seen... But I'm saving Knives Out for a movie day with my brother, so I'm breaking my directors rule to watch Hell or High Water today.
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Both Knives Out and Hell Or High Water are fine but neither was ever really in contention for a place on my ballot. Damned if the Faildictions program didn't get the former in the right position so sadly no 100% record possible this time 
Seen: 23/28 (Own: 14/28)
Seen: 23/28 (Own: 14/28)
My ballot:
Faildictions
Last edited by Chypmunk; 01-12-23 at 12:25 PM.
Damn, I thought I did pretty good with those guesses but I was way off.
I've watched both of these movies and was disappointed with each of them. Hell or High Water I saw in preparation for the Westerns Countdown. It was good and I respected it, but it just didn't really engage me the way I'd hoped.
I watched Knives Out in preparation for this countdown. I'd heard nothing but great things, but I found it kind of tedious and annoying.
Seen: 15/28
My Ballot:
11. The Man From Nowhere (#95)
20. Jojo Rabbit (2019) (#89)
25. Kitbull (One Pointer)
Reviews in My 2010s Countdown Preparation Thread
My review for Hell Or High Water:
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
Imdb
Date Watched: 04/29/2020
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: MoFo Top 100 Westerns
Rewatch: No.
This is a really solid film about a pair of brothers that take to bank robbery in order to save the family's ranch and the Texas Ranger that is chasing them.
There's plenty of gunfire and even some scenes in a casino but this is not a flashy film. It's relatively short but still takes its time to let the audience get to know the key players. It doesn't prop anyone up as being particularly heroic and gives the audience plenty of opportunity to see things from the perspective of both the outlaws and the men trying to bring them to justice.
On that note, I enjoyed the intensity of Ben Fosters performance as the brother with the criminal past -and really, he was my reason for watching it- and I found Jeff Bridges's character amusing. Chris Pine did a decent job as the other brother but was not a stand-out for me.
Unfortunately though, once I got to know the characters I still didn't particularly like them and wasn't as invested in them as I'd hoped to be. As such, I respected the film more than I truly liked it.
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My review for Knives Out:
Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019)
I don't know what exactly I was expecting with this, but given its reputation and popularity, it didn't meet whatever those expectations were. I think I gave a light chuckle like twice the whole movie, but mainly I was bored. Even with all its twists and turns, the movie dragged terribly for me and Daniel Craig's stupid fake drawl just irritated the shit out of me - and probably accounts for a large part of why I was so disengaged with it. I wasn't impressed with anybody else's performance either or anything else about the movie for that matter.
About the only positive I can say for it is that it's always nice to see Don Johnson in a popular movie. I've had a soft spot for him since his days on Nash Bridges. Otherwise this was just a very mediocre to borderline bad experience for me.
I've watched both of these movies and was disappointed with each of them. Hell or High Water I saw in preparation for the Westerns Countdown. It was good and I respected it, but it just didn't really engage me the way I'd hoped.
I watched Knives Out in preparation for this countdown. I'd heard nothing but great things, but I found it kind of tedious and annoying.
Seen: 15/28
My Ballot:
11. The Man From Nowhere (#95)
20. Jojo Rabbit (2019) (#89)
25. Kitbull (One Pointer)
Reviews in My 2010s Countdown Preparation Thread
My review for Hell Or High Water:
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
Imdb
Date Watched: 04/29/2020
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: MoFo Top 100 Westerns
Rewatch: No.
This is a really solid film about a pair of brothers that take to bank robbery in order to save the family's ranch and the Texas Ranger that is chasing them.
There's plenty of gunfire and even some scenes in a casino but this is not a flashy film. It's relatively short but still takes its time to let the audience get to know the key players. It doesn't prop anyone up as being particularly heroic and gives the audience plenty of opportunity to see things from the perspective of both the outlaws and the men trying to bring them to justice.
On that note, I enjoyed the intensity of Ben Fosters performance as the brother with the criminal past -and really, he was my reason for watching it- and I found Jeff Bridges's character amusing. Chris Pine did a decent job as the other brother but was not a stand-out for me.
Unfortunately though, once I got to know the characters I still didn't particularly like them and wasn't as invested in them as I'd hoped to be. As such, I respected the film more than I truly liked it.
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Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019)
I don't know what exactly I was expecting with this, but given its reputation and popularity, it didn't meet whatever those expectations were. I think I gave a light chuckle like twice the whole movie, but mainly I was bored. Even with all its twists and turns, the movie dragged terribly for me and Daniel Craig's stupid fake drawl just irritated the shit out of me - and probably accounts for a large part of why I was so disengaged with it. I wasn't impressed with anybody else's performance either or anything else about the movie for that matter.
About the only positive I can say for it is that it's always nice to see Don Johnson in a popular movie. I've had a soft spot for him since his days on Nash Bridges. Otherwise this was just a very mediocre to borderline bad experience for me.
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