The fact that Clint Eastwood has carried on working into his 9th decade is hugely impressive. His trademark quick work ethic reaps some very mixed rewards. Considering he could be long retired with his feet up by now he still deserves a huge amount of credit.
Cry Macho . is exactly what viewers would expect from an old man Eastwood film. A western period piece where Eastwood directs and stars as a former rodeo cowboy tasked with transporting a teenager and his rooster to his father over the Mexican border. Cue the very standard mismatched relationship turns into a grudging friendship narrative. Eastwood is always watchable and the presence of the rooster adds a little quirky flavour but this is the kind of thing audiences will have seen dozens of times before. The entire thing Never shakes off the sense of being a somewhat sleepy production. Everyone involved seems to have been on autopilot.
For a COVID era production, the visuals and vistas are surprisingly striking. That said it’s difficult to recommend the film to anyone beyond Eastwood’s typically older-skewing target audience. It may be far from the worst thing Eastwood has produced in recent memory( that would be The 15:17 to Paris) but it has very little new or interesting to offer.
5/10.
A Little Bit Of Everything 