I don’t want to throw you off with the title of the review. I have to say that for a western and me not being a fan of western movies, I have to say that I was not disappointed with ‘True Grit’. I need to give you a little background about the movie going experience I look forward to. The big screen adventure to me is just that, an adventure. I go to movies to escape reality, I go to find out how cool it must feel to jump off tall buildings and live to see another day. A big screen movies is my way of getting out of the real life not so adventurous day to day. Going to see ‘True Grit’ was something that I was not looking forward to, but glad that I went.
The reason I would say that I liked it was because of the character that Jeff Bridges plays, the old John Wayne role ‘Marshall Reuben J. ‘Rooster’ Cogburn’ (Jeff Bridges). I have to say he is the main reason why I sat through the movie and the young girl ‘Mattie Ross’ (Hailee Steinfeld) who is very driven and firm when it comes to what needs to happen. Hailee was able to pull off the character and believable adding to the story telling. Jeff and Hailee had some great on screen chemistry and together made the movie great to watch the “quest” that they were out to accomplish.
The very next reason is of course one of my favorite actors right now, Matt Damon, he plays the Texas Ranger ‘LaBoeuf’ maybe a decedent of Shia? Matt brought in the third part of the recipe that made the movie fun to watch. I need to say this again, I am not a fan of western movies and with that in mind I still enjoyed the movie. Matt Damon had a calm character and as the girl in the movie he was a driven character that pursued a man all the way from Texas to see justice done. He played more of the modern day “Boy Scout” and was wanting to do what was right and make sure that he did his job.
It was fun to see Matt let himself go with this role, and that he was able to play a hairy, dirty Texas Ranger how doesn’t know how to take out 4 guys with his bare hands as in previous roles as the deadly Jason Bourne. I almost have to think that anyone else playing these roles would have ruined the movie for me and I would have to really dislike westerns even more. So I thank the casting directors and the actors for doing some “justice” to this old classic and making it so I would at least want to watch another western in the future. A little on the content of the movie, and this is not going to give anything away. The movie is rated PG-13 and based on what I saw it is for the violence and some language. Don’t let the rating fool you, and don’t expect that with a PG-13 rating that this is a great father and son movie watching a western together. There are some pretty graphic scenes that surprised me and caught me off guard. They are not very graphic and they are quick takes so if you were to blink when they happen you will miss it. They did make it so that your imagination creates that rest of the image, so I am giving you all a warning, some of the material will cause you to say “what the??”.
So to end this review and hopefully I gave you an idea of what to expect. If you do not want to spend $10 but want to see the movie, I guarantee that you will like it as much if you wait for the DVD. In my opinion you do not need to see this one on the big screen, save your money and wait for the version that can be watch on your flat screen at home. You will like it, but I don’t think it is $10 worth when I can love it for $1 as a rental.
My 2GO rating is 3.7 of 5
