HELL OR HIGH WATER is an appropriately gritty bank heist thriller that manages to breathe some freshness into an overworked genre. The film has a sweaty desert setting and casts Ben Foster and Chris Pine as a pair of brothers cast into a world of crime due to economic difficulties. Pine has the lesser role of the two, basically all square-jawed niceness, while Foster, who has been an interesting presence in Hollywood ever since THE PUNISHER, adds another deranged role to his repertoire.
Pitted against these siblings are the local police force, spearheaded by a typically laconic Jeff Bridges. The plot as it plays out is quite predictable, but the direction is far above average and the action sequences almost hum with electricity. The bank heist scenes are as tense as you'd expect, but a HEAT-style shoot-out and car chase are both very well achieved and some climactic moments are also nicely portrayed. It's not a film I'd consider a masterpiece, but it does the job well enough and the realism never drops for a second.
Pitted against these siblings are the local police force, spearheaded by a typically laconic Jeff Bridges. The plot as it plays out is quite predictable, but the direction is far above average and the action sequences almost hum with electricity. The bank heist scenes are as tense as you'd expect, but a HEAT-style shoot-out and car chase are both very well achieved and some climactic moments are also nicely portrayed. It's not a film I'd consider a masterpiece, but it does the job well enough and the realism never drops for a second.