Robert Duvall never disappoints, even when he appears in a modestly budgeted (only $2 million) independent effort. You have to give the man credit, he was eighty two when he made this picture when most of the other old hosses would have been put out to pasture. It was 2003's "Open Range" that convinced me that Duvall is my favorite modern day actor, an idea reinforced whenever I see him in a picture I haven't viewed before.
Take this one for example. He's got the churlish, old man gimmick down pretty well with the facial grimace and repetitive 'Yeahs' to follow up his poignant observations about life and it's consequences. Where the story line takes an unexpected turn occurs when hit man Cholo (Joaquin Cosio) takes out the two grifters who hitch a ride with Red Bovie (Duvall) and his grandson Gally (Jeremy Irvine). All the while one expects the pair of outlaws to hijack Bovie and steal his car, leaving the rest of the story for Red to pursue the men and make good. So that was a twist I didn't see coming.
The other one was Red hooking up with the senorita Patty Wafers (Angie Cepeda), an arrangement that doesn't look like it would work but between them, they make sure that the old adage of opposites attracting still works. I'm on the fence with the character of Gally, actor Irvine looked miscast for the part to my thinking. If not for the connection between his own father and the estranged relationship with Red, I don't think it would have worked, but there was something in there that clicked for the elder Bovie, especially after learning that James got his ticket punched on a commuter train back home.
It was cool to see Abraham Benrubi in the story as Big Roscoe Hamill, arranging a four hundred dollar getaway from Mexico when drug kingpin Panama (Luis Tosar) zeroed in on the drug money left behind in Red's car. Benrubi appeared as one of Duvall's ranch hands who was murdered on the trail in "Open Range", and just like he did here, it's Duvall's character who sets out to make things right when he's crossed.
Take this one for example. He's got the churlish, old man gimmick down pretty well with the facial grimace and repetitive 'Yeahs' to follow up his poignant observations about life and it's consequences. Where the story line takes an unexpected turn occurs when hit man Cholo (Joaquin Cosio) takes out the two grifters who hitch a ride with Red Bovie (Duvall) and his grandson Gally (Jeremy Irvine). All the while one expects the pair of outlaws to hijack Bovie and steal his car, leaving the rest of the story for Red to pursue the men and make good. So that was a twist I didn't see coming.
The other one was Red hooking up with the senorita Patty Wafers (Angie Cepeda), an arrangement that doesn't look like it would work but between them, they make sure that the old adage of opposites attracting still works. I'm on the fence with the character of Gally, actor Irvine looked miscast for the part to my thinking. If not for the connection between his own father and the estranged relationship with Red, I don't think it would have worked, but there was something in there that clicked for the elder Bovie, especially after learning that James got his ticket punched on a commuter train back home.
It was cool to see Abraham Benrubi in the story as Big Roscoe Hamill, arranging a four hundred dollar getaway from Mexico when drug kingpin Panama (Luis Tosar) zeroed in on the drug money left behind in Red's car. Benrubi appeared as one of Duvall's ranch hands who was murdered on the trail in "Open Range", and just like he did here, it's Duvall's character who sets out to make things right when he's crossed.