Clint Eastwood's The Mule (No Spoiler Alert)

Rottton Tomatoes ^ | 12/17/2018 | Nikos1121

[nikos1121]

So, like many here, I'm waiting for the opening of Clint's new movie, The Mule.

Why? Hmmm. Let me counts the ways.

1. His movies are 95% of the time entertaining, esp if he's in them.

2. I like watching him.

3. His movies cut thru the crap, and make you think while at the same time have you glued to the seat, I'm thinking of the 2 two Iwo Jima movies, or Gran Torino, Unforgiven, etc

4. HIs movies can be funny, like Bronco Billy.

Ok? So, I'm eagerly awaiting this one, The Mule, as I've seen the previews. And it supposedly takes place in Peoria, IL where I lived once, and my kids still do.

I get up on SUnday, and check the times. Perfect, a 1:15 Matinee.

I call up a friend, she in!

WE meet. I get my senior discount ticket, and her adult, big 2019 Popcorn Bucket, and off we go.

We sit up in the higher seats.

(NOte: Has anyone noticed that no one, I MEAN NO ONE sits downstairs anymore...esp adult. We all sit at the higher seats...so, like Bill Hickok, we can watch everyone walk in. I'd wager that 60% of us were packing.)

So, before the show, I'm scanning thru the reviews at Rotton Tomato, and here I see that the movie critics are really slamming the movie. I mean about 50% say it's zero.

One guy, implies that the movie has cryptic pro Trump messaging ie...I guess anti-immigrants?

Another guy says, the movie was "pasted together with very few retakes."

Another is upset that Bradley Cooper didn't have a bigger part.

And on and on bs.

I"m thinking no way, no how, Clint, my Man is not going to let me down.

I pan thru the reviews by people like us, "The audience" and they're glowing...I mean not an Oscar winning movie, but a good solid Clint film. Many giving it 4/4 stars.

Here's the real impression.

It's a great movie. Solid 3 out of 4 star Clint movie all the way. Not real artsy fartsy movie like The Unforgivin, but entertaining...Got that Folks, Entertaining.

Clint makes movie making easy. He tees up the good guy's on one side, usually the family he left behind, the bad guys on the other side, usually criminal elements in the Latino and black community, and he's in the middle, a repentant old geezer, selfish in life until life stares him in the face.

He's says in the movie, "The only guy wishing to live to be 100, is the guy who is 99."

No spoiler alert, but here's a little background.

Clint plays the part of 90 year old Earl Stone, a very popular Horticulturist who wins contests for the best Lilys who goes bankrupt when the internet makes ordering flowers easy.

He's out of money, out of a job. So, by fate he runs into some Mexican Cartel guys, at his grand daughter's wedding, who hire him to do some drug running for them, from Texas to CHicago, because no one would suspect him, and like he says, he's NEVER had a traffic ticket in his whole life.

He's The Mule.

He makes a lot of money working with these tough hombres, on the first run. And I would have been happy if the movie ended there, and we went home knowing that Earl buys his old farm back, and lives happily ever after...

but noooooooooOOOOOOooooooo.

We have to go through the usual tense moments back and forth, and watch Earl smoothly enter in and out of danger.

I don't know who does the casting of these movies, but they always seem to get the people who actually make you scared to look at them. I mean, I could feel my BP going up when they would be threatening Clint.

And of course, just like in the movie Gran Torino, they can threaten him all day, and he doesn't give a rat's @...he's Veteran and he's seen it and done it all...and tells them to get lost.

Anyway, he makes the first run...then he does it again and again.

I'm going to stop here.

All I'm going to say is, I found myself praying that he'd stop while he was ahead,

but noooooooOOOOOooooo

he keeps going to the point, that the big Kahuna in Mexico played capably by Andy Garcia, flies him in to party at his home for a week or so.

It's a movie worth seeing, even alone. Clint knows how to real us in, and he does it quickly. Movie moves fast, even the slow parts.

And as usual, Clint sticks it to the PC crowd of critics, he mocks blacks and Latinos like breathing in and breathing out. Being PC doesn't exist in an Eastwood movie.

ONe scene has him pulling over to help a black family with a flat tire, and Earl says something like, "Not surprising to find Negros on the side of the road not knowing how to change a tire." Bwahahahahahahaaaaa.

I get the critics, but while watching this movie, I realize these critics, who make money reviewing movies, DON'T GET Clint Eastwood, same as the idiots at CNN and MSNBC etc don't get Trump.

Can't wait until the next Clint movie. I hope he keeps going, until? Well, he's 100.

[nikos1121]

I think I’m getting dyslexic in my old years here. God, I hope it’s not an early sign of dementia... Just read another post, and wrote “write” instead of “right.”

[nikos1121]

If you haven’t been to a theater in 30 years, I would seek out First Man, and watch that at the theater. It’s a great movie. Very patriotic.

[MayflowerMadam]

We saw it this afternoon; we loved it. A few decidedly un-PC lines it. Refreshing to see a movie not cluttered with computer graphics.

[CaptainK]

A coherent adult story line. Amazing isn’t it!