In rural Texas, two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who have had difficult lives are robbing small banks to save the family farm. Two rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) are assigned to solve the series of crimes.In some ways, "Hell or High Water" resembles "Bonnie and Clyde". Once we know the plight of the robbers, we viewers end up sympathizing with them despite their occasional brutality.The film has a good chase scene in the second half though compared to other past crime capers (of which there are many), the action is more steady than exciting. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The movie's strength is mainly in the dialogues: those between the two brothers and those between the two rangers.The Bridges character is near retirement. He is smart and likeable in some ways but acts like a dumb ass when he makes racial taunts to his long-time colleague whose heritage is half Native American and half Mexican. Birmingham's reactions to the "teasing" tells a lot in subtle ways; there is offense mixed with a history of accepting the rudeness. Despite this tension, it is clear the long-time colleagues respect each other.There is an underlying theme that represents our modern times: that many people, like the robber brothers, are living in hard financial times and it is the banks who are regarded as the true villains. It's rather courageous and rare for a modern film to challenge the status quo this way. Add to this the bonus of a cameo appearance by Margaret Bowman as a waitress in a small town dive - someone who seems to have been born in a swamp.

"Hell or High Water" has got a revenge theme suitable for these days, where banks keep the hard working class poor. Now the poor start robbing the banks to provide a financial future for their kids. Sort of a modern Robin Hood version, if you were to look at it in perspective. Robin Hood stories have been made before and better and with more humor. Probably Jeff Bridges is supposed to be the dude that provides the fun part, but he overdoes it. Can't take him too seriously as a character. I hate that when actors act too much like a stereotype. This movie could have been better. Now it is average to reasonably good. Not great, but certainly not bad either. That could be my whole review. Had it been the Coen Brothers then EVERYTHING from soundtrack to photography to acting would have been excellent. Had it been the Coen Brothers. Watch "No Country for Old Men" instead of this flick, you will be in for a real treat. But it aint the Coen Brothers who made this flick, it's director MacKenzie. Who's that you might ask? I wonder too. Thanks to MacKenzie I have watched just an average heist movie, which had much more going for it. Still it was satisfying to watch. But it nags a little, that it could have been much better and in the end I feel a little empty. Is that all? That's the problem with films that take themselves too seriously. You gotta deliver when you aim for something great and classic. They didnt deliver...It is a wannabe classic. Nothing is more frustrating than second place when you aim for first.

On the face of it this is a standard cops-and-robbers bank heist tale, with a chalk/cheese pair of protagonists and a cliche edge-of-retirement lawman to give chase.The script here though is sharper than your average. Jeff Bridges (on form) as the lawman, pulls out zingers a-plenty and there's generally plenty of black humour to go around. A deft melding of the ol' Slow West (gun) stock with a modern layering of dead-end ghost towns and bank foreclosures: the huge Texan landscapes & skies, both entirely empty, the camera snaps up whenever the opportunity arises, the moody score (when not dipping into Country-Rock) and dialogue all contributing to the very definite feel of a moody mourning, like something in this world is lost or broken.Old fashioned American film-making, albeit from a Scottish director, I found this is a little lethargic to get going but by the end I was completely sold.

A by-the-books bank robbing flick that could best be described as No Country for Old Men-adjacent for several reasons, one being Jeff Bridges (who, at his age, is doing his best to corner the market on ornery, hardheaded, no-nonsense old men that groan all of their lines) who plays a character cut from the exact same cloth as Tommy Lee Jones's was. It's what you'd expect a movie about two brothers in Texas robbing banks would be. But it's not trying to change conventions, instead focusing on being a "really good one of those," with solid work on both sides of the camera.