A FILM REVIEW OF ''THE HIGHWAYMEN" (2019)

"Blind Side" director John Lee Hancock's authentic, Depression Era, road-trip, manhunt thriller "The Highwaymen," (*** OUT OF ****) co-starring Oscar-winning actor Kevin Costner and Oscar-nominated Woody Harrelson, serves as the flip side of the classic Warner Brothers' gangster epic "Bonnie & Clyde" (1967), with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Told from the perspective of the two seasoned manhunters who tracked down the bloodthirsty young Texas couple, "The Highwaymen" confines their quarry Bonnie & Clyde to the periphery of the mayhem, out-of-the-limelight, depicting them in either far-off shots or close-ups, so audiences cannot sympathize with these trigger-happy desperados who had gunned down policemen without a qualm. "Young Guns" scenarist John Fusco has provided far more history about this pugnacious pair in this Netflix movie than its celebrated theatrical predecessor. Often, when we see Bonnie, we are given only glimpses of her feet encased in ruby red shoes. She walks with a limp that she acquired after Clyde drove off a bridge under construction when he missed a detour. This mishap injured Bonnie so severely that she resorted to laudanum, a concoction of opium and alcohol, to relieve the agony until she died in May 1934 in a hail of gunfire from two former Texas Rangers--Frank Hamer and Manny Gault--along with a posse in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Throughout this chronicle of their pursuit, Hamer and Gault were amazed by the relative lack of height of the two criminals in comparison to the media attention that transformed them into titanic celebrities during what was termed 'the Public Enemy era' between 1931 and 1934. In the final scene, Hancock gives us a lingering glance of the two felons, looking like two clean-scrubbed, fashionably attired cherubs, with an arsenal of firearms at their fingertips.

As depicted in "The Highwaymen," the beginning of the end for the notorious duo started with a prison breakout that Bonnie & Clyde orchestrated to free accomplices from the Texas-based Eastham Prison Farm in 1934. Warden Lee Simmons (John Carroll Lynch of "Shutter Island") of the Texas Department of Corrections got the green light from Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson (Kathy Bates of "Primary Colors") to hire Hamer to stop the crime spree of these two twentysomething renegades. Privately, Ferguson had nothing but contempt for the Texas Rangers, recently disbanded under a cloud of corruption, and warned her own duly appointed constabulary that they would face repercussions if the two former Rangers nabbed Bonnie & Clyde. Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner of "Dances with Wolves") comes out of retirement and accepts Simmons' offer despite the misgivings of his socialite wife. Hamer chooses an old friend and former Texas Ranger Benjamin Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson of "Natural Born Killers") to accompany him. Neither Hamer nor Gault is in good enough shape to chase a teenager around the block near Bonnie's mother's house. Hamer hasn't fired his revolver in such a long time that he cannot obliterate bottles with bullets. While immaculately dressed officers of the state of Texas as well as the FBI rely on the latest modern crime-fighting technology to pursue the elusive Bonnie & Clyde, Hamer counts on his frontier savvy about human nature and maps charting the couple's whereabouts to ferret them out. Comparatively, this evokes memories of the turn-of-the-century John Wayne western "Big Jake" (1971) where Wayne tracked down the dastards who kidnapped his grandson, while law enforcement handicapped by modern technology could do little despite their apparent advantages over him. Ultimately, Hamer and Gault put everybody, including FBI with their aerial searches, to shame. Essentially, our heroes qualify as underdogs who manage to triumph despite incredible odds to stop the Barrow gang.

Mind you, "The Highwaymen" certainly isn't the most exciting manhunt melodrama. At times, the going is mighty slow because Hamer and Gault painstakingly gather clues and develop leads based on their bloodhound instincts. Although most of the action involves Hamer and Gault, they have few encounters with Bonnie & Clyde until the finale. The scene that highlights best what our heroes must contend with occurs when they tail Bonnie & Clyde out of a town and then lose them in the middle of nowhere. Clyde careens off the highway into a barren field and swerves in circles around Hamer and Gault. Clyde churns up a blinding dust storm and loses the two Texas Rangers. Eventually, after he learns that the felons are cruising off for 'greener pastures,' Hamer decides to pursue them into Louisiana where the authorities have issued no warrants for their arrest. During the manhunt, Gault agonizes about his ability to shoot a woman. Later, they learn Bonnie Parker has been as just as cold-blooded and homicidal as Clyde. This is a far cry from the vintage Warner Brothers movie. Hamer follows a lead involving one of Clyde's accomplices in Louisiana. He cuts a deal with the father of one of Clyde's cronies that culminates in the inevitable ambush of the twosome. The posse catch Bonnie & Clyde as they approach their accomplice's father who is seeking roadside assistance. Reportedly, in real life, the posse poured so many volleys of gunfire into the couple that the barrage deafened them.

Clocking in at two hours and twelve minutes, "The Highwaymen" aims for the older demographic that loved "Unforgiven." Nevertheless, it ranks far above anything that Costner has made in many moons. Costner and Harrelson lend their considerable gravitas to Hancock's authentic looking film. The $49-million production does a commendable job of recreating the utter despair and destitution suffered by too many people during the Great Depression. Some critics and historians have accused Hamer of overstepping his authority after he shadowed Bonnie & Clyde into Louisiana, and he could have taken them alive. Hancock and Fusco show that Hamer was prepared to do whatever was necessary to kill the couple. Despite its impressive adherence to history, "The Highwaymen" will always lay in the shadow of the Oscar-winning Warner Brothers' classic, but it does provide greater insight into Bonnie & Clyde.

FILM REVIEW OF ''TRIPLE FRONTIER" (2019)

The premise of "Triple Frontier," (** OUT OF ****) Netflix's limited theatrical release about retired special-ops who rob a South American drug trafficker, sounded promising. "All is Lost" director J.C. Chandor and Oscar-winning "Hurt Locker" scenarist Mark Boal focus on a team of sympathetic, hard-luck, military types who should appeal to any red-blooded connoisseur of American action cinema. Furthermore, these heroes see this mission as their chance to start over. Despite their faithful military service to Uncle Sam, they received neither proper recognition nor sufficient compensation. Now, they embark on a campaign to plunder millions in blood money from a notorious narcotics honcho. Everything boils down to black and white simplicity. Our heroes are cut from the same clichés as Sylvester Stallone's far more seasoned cronies in the "The Expendables" trilogy, and they do come loaded for bear. Nevertheless, these guys behave like amateurs, compounding one mistake after another, and undermining their own best efforts. Since the good guys must be sympathetic, the villains must be repugnant. Cartel drug traffickers qualify as ideal heavies. Reviled in real life as much as on the screen, they kill without a qualm and hold nothing sacred. They deserve to die a thousand times. Our heroes should be virtuously white, while the villains should be shady as sin. Comparably, James Brolin led a group of amateurs on a similar mission in "High Risk" (1981), but everybody survived with their loot intact for a triumphant finale. "Triple Frontier" had potential, but it wastes its powerhouse cast (Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal) in a hackneyed hokum about the malevolence of greed. Like we don't know the corrosive nature of greed. Presumably, Chandor and Boal must have cut their teeth on the Humphrey Bogart classic "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) because "Triple Frontier" contains a similar storyline. Unfortunately, this escapist oriented, testosterone-laden tale turns sour in Chandor and Boal's hands. Imagine what "The Expendables" might have been if they lost, and you may pass up watching "Triple Frontier."

Technically, "Triple Frontier" is a crime movie instead of an adventure epic. Our heroes initiate a home invasion and loot a wealthy cartel mobster's premises. Initially, they search without success for his safe, until it dawns on them the house is the safe! Meantime, since the villain lives beyond the law, he cannot blow the whistle on them without running the risk of the authorities intervening. Greed enters the picture, and our heroes take too many duffels of loot. Until the 1970s, Hollywood maintained a strict censorship policy that crooks never delight in their ill-gotten gains. This policy was part of a larger rule Hollywood struggled to enforce: Crime must not pay! When the Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges heist caper "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot" (1974) came out, the studios gave these criminals greater flexibility, but not without the usual life and death consequences. In "Triple Frontier," we are rooting for our heroes to haul off millions when we realize they've completely lost their minds. Poor planning sabotages their heist. Indeed, they pull off the robbery, but pulling off the getaway is something else. Stallone and his "Expendables" cohorts would have gotten clean away, but these loose cannons must pay the piper. "Triple Frontier" takes a tragic turn around its 90-minute mark, and you have to ponder whether you want to shed a tear for this band of clowns-in-camouflage. Naturally, The character with the greatest amount to lose inevitably gets it. This kind of old-fashioned morality takes the joy out of what could have been an audacious adventure epic. During the getaway section, our heroes behave like trigger-happy amateurs. They find themselves against odds even more incredible than those of the cartel. Primarily, they find themselves at the mercy of the local population. The getaway occurs in sprawling, spectacular, mountainous scenery, with Hawaii standing in splendidly for Brazil. Our heroes exfiltrate in a wobbly helicopter with their ill-gotten gains dangling beneath it in a cargo net. Foolishly, they have loaded more than the chopper can accommodate and fly over the Andes Mountains. They disintegrate into their own worst enemy.

"Triple Frontier" gets off to a promising start as Chandor and Boal introduce the heroes and their particular predicament that has prompted them to commit a crime. The chief protagonist is Santiago 'Pope' Garcia (Oscar Isaac of "A Most Violent Year"), and he is a private military contractor who coordinates drug busts with the local authorities. Pope has a confidential informant, Yovanna (Adria Arjona of "Pacific Rim: Uprising"), and she knows the whereabouts of the local drug trafficker. She also knows that he has concealed millions in his walls. She provides Pope with everything he needs to know about this despicably murderous narco. Pope enlists four of his old service buddies and outlines a scenario that each of them could tote off duffels stuffed with multi-millions in cash. Eventually, Pope consults Tom 'Redfly' Davis (Ben Affleck of "The Town") and asks him to draft a combat plan. Reluctantly, Davis designs a scheme with a timetable. Pope persuades a pilot, Francisco 'Catfish' Morales (Pedro Pascal of "The Equalizer 2"), to fly them across the Andes to a ship on the coast. After Davis agrees to accompany them, William 'Ironhead' Miller (Charlie Hunnam of "King Arthur") signs on, and his little brother, MMA fighter Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund of "TRON: Legacy"), joins them. Afterward, everything goes sideways. Greed overrides good sense, and one of the five takes a fatal bullet in the head. "Triple Frontier" never recovers from the tragic death of this character. In part, he brought it on himself. At this point, our heroes whine like knuckle-heads who bit off more than they could chew and are choking on their own greed. The performances are uniformly robust, but the filmmakers have given each actor little to work with to make their respective characters memorable, for example, like "The Magnificent Seven." If you're hoping for thrills and chills, "Triple Frontier" provides few.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT" (2018)

The title of a movie may sometimes reveal more about its plot than you need to know.  Freshman writer & director Robert D. Krzykowski's atmospheric, historical epic "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot" (*** OUT OF ****), starring Sam Elliot as the titular protagonist, doesn't tell everything.  As the legendary huntsman Calvin Barr, Elliot plays the individual who infiltrated the ranks of the Third Reich and put lead through Hitler's head. "Poldark" star Aidan Turner credibly portrays the protagonist as a younger man in the World War II scenes. Happily, Turner bears a reasonable resemblance to what Sam Elliot might have looked like 50 years ago.  After all, Sam is pushing 75.  After the Hitler shooting, Elliot takes over from Turner as the older Barr for the 1980s.  Meantime, Krzykowski cuts back and forth between past and present storylines, and he displays nimble flair.  Everything considered, though he appears in perhaps half of the movie, Elliot's sturdy presence turns "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot" into an intriguing, occasionally exciting, meditation on loneliness and heroism.  The scene where Barr penetrates Hitler's security and confronts the Führer is suspenseful. Even better is the unusual weapon our hero assembles from various inconspicuous personal items to shoot him.  The gun is reminiscent of the weapon wielded by Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond extravaganza "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974). Despite all his medals and bravery, our hero doesn't live in the lap of luxury.  Of course, nobody knows he killed Hitler.  The U.S. government covered up his audacious deed when the Third Reich replaced the Führer with an imposter!  Moreover, as each imposter perished, Barr explained the Nazis lined-up another to maintain the masquerade.  This kind of inventive plotting distinguishes this artsy, little, independently produced film.  The palatable authenticity that permeates "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot" is contrary to most current films.  Fate constitutes a fickle thing for Calvin Barr as well as for the audience, but the movie never degenerates into a maudlin melodrama.

Good fortune has not favored Calvin Barr in his personal ambitions.  He bides his time contemplating the past. Barr keeps to himself unless he ventures out to his younger brother's barbershop for a trim.  Barr's congenial brother Ed (comedian Larry Miller of "Undercover Blues") is only too happy to give Calvin a haircut.  Sometimes, they go fishing and drift idly around in a boat on a serene lake, but never utter a word.  Calvin experiences flashbacks from the Hitler assassination throughout, reliving those white-knuckled moments.  Meantime, he eats breakfast with Ralphie, his pet Labrador Retriever, slipping him a fragment of link sausage under the table.  Calvin lives alone, and Krzykowski often shows him pondering a small wooden box.  Neither the significance nor the contents of the box is divulged, but it is enough for us to know that it contains something valuable to him.  Calvin's mysterious box is comparable to the enigmatic attaché case in "Pulp Fiction."  You can guess all you want, but Krzykowski neither affirms nor denies what lies within it.  When he least expects visitors, Calvin finds himself chatting with an FBI agent nicknamed Flag Pin (Ron Livingston of "Office Space") and a Canadian government official Maple Leaf (Rizwan Manji of "Charlie Wilson's War") who pitch him a preposterous proposition straight-out-of-a-science fiction saga. 

In Canada, health experts have learned the fabled creature Bigfoot is carrying a deadly plague which could wipe out mankind.  Every animal that Bigfoot has come into contact with has died an ugly death.  Miraculously, Calvin is immune to the creature's virus, so he enjoys a modicum of protection.  Flag Pin and Maple Leaf want him to enter a fiery arena about 50-miles in diameter in the Canadian wilderness and shoot the Bigfoot to death.  Initially reluctant to undertake such an outlandish mission, Calvin changes his mind at the last moment.  The creature Bigfoot is reminiscent of the apes at the dawn of time in Stanley Kubrick's original "2001: A Space Odyssey," but it isn't a schlocky B-movie monster.  Calvin reports back that the creature doesn't have big feet.  Nevertheless, this creature is clever, and it almost leads Calvin off the edge of a cliff.    Earlier, Calvin's encounter with thieves outside the bar in his home town turns ugly and violent.  These three dastards brandish knives and pistols and demand his keys and his wallet. The methodical way Calvin disarms them and leaves them sprawled senseless on the asphalt would prompt the heroes of "The Expendables" film franchise to high-five him with admiration.

Sam Elliot's performance is laden with dramatic gravitas.  Not every actor can play a seasoned killer who convinces us that he is not only lethal but also remorseful.  Elliot doesn't shrink from performing his own stunts, and the filmmakers thrust him into situations that few 75-year old men should experience.  One stunning long shot of Elliot scaling a mountain with his bare hands with his rifle strapped to his back reminds us that the journey of the hero is fraught with constant peril.  Krzykowski keeps the actor on his toes. Mind you, everything Krzykowski does here as a filmmaker clashes with the common wisdom of theatrical tentpole releases.  Krzykowski's film suffers somewhat from the pervasive sense of melancholy our stalwart, tight-lipped hero experiences.  Bridging the 1940s with the 1980s, Zach Passero's polished editing makes these drastically different scenes appear integrated.  As Calvin's younger version, Aiden Turner has a brief, bittersweet romance with the heroine Caitlin FitzGerald.  However, they are never shown sleeping together. Seriously efficient at his tracking and killing, Calvin Barr lacks the control over his personal life that he has attained over his prey in his professional life.  The actor cast as Hitler-- Joe Lucas--is a dead ringer for Herr Schicklgruber!  Altogether, "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot" qualifies as a derivative, but above-average, character study with nuance about an individual who without question made sacrifices to serve his country.