it is a relief to find someone who actually says what they're feeling and what they're thinking

Four movies in one day. It's been ages since I've tried such a feat. I'm happy to say that each of these got at least one thumb up!

Get the Gringo (2012) - "On his way the dusty Mexican border with a loot of over $2 million hidden in the boot of his car, a getaway driver ends up in the infamous 'El Pueblito' prison. As the only American inmate in the dangerous village of convicts, the driver quickly gets the nickname 'The Gringo', and finds out firsthand how rough it is to be a stranger in a world of criminals. To stay alive in this pit where everyone knows about the grand prize, the Gringo will have to form a reluctant pact with an unlikely ally: a streetwise ten-year-old kid with a peculiar immunity in this mad place. Now, with a huge target on his head and knowing that his time is short, will the Gringo manage to save himself, and get the money?"
source: streamed on DISH
I watched it because: it was a designated "movie marathon day" and it was the first mutually agreeable option
IMDB: 6.9/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 81% Audience: 68%
my IMDB: 8/10

notable quote: "Put it back."

MPAA rating: R

directed by: Adrian Grünberg

my notes: action-packed, funny, unexpectedly tender, occasionally gory, and well worth seeing. I liked the Gringo's relationship with the kid.

overall: highly recommended

Last Chance Harvey (2008) - "In London for his daughter's wedding, a struggling jingle-writer, Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman), misses his plane to New York, and thus loses his job. While drowning his sorrows in the airport pub, Harvey meets Kate (Emma Thompson), a British government worker stuck in an endless cycle of work, phone calls from her mother, and blind dates. A connection forms between the unhappy pair, who soon find themselves falling in love."

source: streamed on DISH
I watched it because: it was a designated "movie marathon day" and it was the second mutually agreeable option - which was intended to be a comedy, since Gringo was all action
IMDB: 6.6/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 71% Audience: 53%
my IMDB: 6/10

notable quote: "I'm not gonna do it, because it'll hurt! Sometime or other there'll be, you know 'It's not working,' or 'I need my space,' or whatever it is, and it will end and it will hurt, and I won't do it."

MPAA rating: PG-13

directed by: Joel Hopkins

my notes: For sure not a comedy in the traditional sense. It gets there, eventually, but there's a swampy pit of alligators beforehand. Hoffman's Harvey is an awkward, self-conscious man. Thompson's Kate is deeply sad, covered up with an obviously false cheer. Their progression toward each other seems organic and makes sense—unlike the completely bizarre digressions into Kate's mother's Polish neighbor (which goes nowhere), as well as 95% of Harvey's phone calls (which all accomplish what one, more incisive one could have). Still, Harvey's longer speech is a lovely moment of class and humility.

overall:  recommended with reservations

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) - "Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a debt-ridden broker, needs some quick cash. He ropes his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), into a scheme to commit the perfect crime: to rob their parents' (Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris) jewelry store. The scheme goes horribly awry, and the family patriarch takes justice into his own hands, unaware that the criminals he is hunting are his own sons."
source: streamed on DISH
I watched it because: it was a designated "movie marathon day" and it was the third mutually agreeable option - which was intended to be action, since Harvey was a romantic comedy
IMDB: 7.3/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 89% Audience: 72%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "The thing about real estate accounting is that you can, you can, add down the page or across the page and everything works out. Everyday, everything adds up. The, the total is always the sum of its parts. It's, uh, clean. It's clear. Neat, absolute. But my life, it, uh, it doesn't add up. It, uh... Nothing connects to anything else. It's, uh... I'm not, I'm not the sum of my parts. All my parts don't add up to one... to one me, I guess."

MPAA rating: R

directed by: Sidney Lumet

my notes: this is a hard, devastating movie, populated with selfish, thoughtless people making awful choices. That's not a bad thing, of course. Some (maybe most?) of the most brilliant cinema involves drama like you and I have never experienced. Hoffman was terrifically brave in the role of Andy, aggressive and pathetic at once. Hawke - a favorite of mine - fleshes Hank with vulnerability and recklessness, though not much else. It's hard to imagine that Marisa Tomei's Gina would have flipped for him. I think the best of the bunch was Finney as Charles, the dad. His progression through grief and anger brought to mind Thoreau's statement (in Civil Disobedience): "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

overall:  recommended

Dead for a Dollar (2022) - "Veteran bounty hunter Max Borlund and Sergeant Alonzo Poe are deep into Mexico, where Borlund encounters professional gambler and outlaw Joe Cribbens - a sworn enemy he sent to prison years before. Borlund and Poe are on a mission to find and return Rachel Kidd, the wife of a wealthy businessman, who as the story is told to Max, has been abducted by Buffalo Soldier Elijah Jones. Max is ultimately faced with a showdown to save honor."
source: streamed on DISH
I watched it because: it was a designated "movie marathon day" and it was the fourth mutually agreeable option
IMDB: 5.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 53% Audience: 35%
my IMDB: 6/10

MPAA rating: R

directed by: Walter Hill

my notes: I didn't love it. The sepia tone felt overdone. The relationships between Borlund and Cribbens, and between Poe and Jones, are awkward and not fully realized. (Just what is it about the mild Cribbens that Borlund - also mild but with more banked heat - so dislikes? And what the F is between Poe and Jones, that Poe both dislikes and cares for Jones?) 

    What I did like: Borlund's man of mystery persona, Ms. Kidd's diffidence and skill with a pistol, Poe's sunny attitude, Mr. Kidd's smarmy assholishness, and Cribbens' willingness to shoot someone for accusing him of cheating.

overall: mildly recommended

 

[the title quotation is from Last Chance Harvey]