Film Preview: Hell or High Water (2016)

Page Revisions:

(June 12, 2016) Original
(July 3, 2016) New Trailer (#2)
(July 24, 2016) New Trailer (#3)

Release Date:

August 12, 2016

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A divorced dad and his ex-con brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family’s farm in West Texas.”

Poster Rating: D

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Review: Desperados walking as the sun sets behind them and a disembodied head watches over them. Symbolically, it makes sense. Visually, it’s not particularly striking.

Trailer Rating: C- / C / C+

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Review: (#1) The trailer lays out the plot in excruciating detail, leaving very little of the film itself behind to be interested in watching. You’ve pretty much got the entirety right here. What’s worse is that it’s so attuned to the formula of these cops and robbers stories that you can probably guess the twist at the end. One brother dies (probably Ben Foster) and the other finds salvation, but jail time.

(#2) With new trailers, it’s hard to separate them from the originals unless they are wild departures. This one isn’t, though it does make the film feel a bit tighter and more interesting, though not necessarily better.

(#3) I can’t say that the film is growing on me, but the trailers are getting a little better with each attempt. While many of the problems of the prior entries are still present, this wants to firmly focus on the relationship between the robbers and the public and how they are simply robbing the thieves. That could go a long way with the target audience for this kind of modern western.