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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nClint Eastwood directs and stars as Michael Milo, a once-prominent Texas rodeo star now ravaged by age, addiction, and loss. He\u2019s given a job as a horse trainer by his old boss Howard (Dwight Yoakam), but he has so little drive that he does the job poorly and gets fired. Howard, insisting that Mike still has a debt to pay, tasks him with going down to Mexico and retrieving his son Rafo (Eduardo Minett). Mike, naturally, isn\u2019t happy about the assignment, but he\u2019s eager to have the sleazy Howard off his back once and for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike travels to Mexico, where he first must contend with Rafo\u2019s mother Leda (Fernanda Urrejola), an implied organized crime figure with henchmen at her disposal. She and Rafo are estranged, but once Mike locates the kid, she wants him back with her and not absentee father Howard. But Rafo wants nothing to do with his mother, so he escapes Mexico City with Mike. The two need to make it to the U.S.\/Mexico border with Leda\u2019s henchmen and some corrupt federales in pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike and Rafo have all the expected trust issues and go through the usual bickering. Rafo wants to drive, Mike won\u2019t let him. Rafo wants to drink (no server will card him because this alleged 13-year-old can easily pass for legal drinking age), Mike won\u2019t let him. Rafo wants to bring his pet rooster Macho on the trip, Mike\u2026 reluctantly lets him. I guess Eastwood figured this movie could use an animal sidekick, and a rooster is a \u201cnew one.\u201d Rafo wants to stay with a family led by restaurant owner Marta (Natalia Traven), and Mike has to decide if maybe that\u2019s best for everybody. In fact, staying with the family himself might be best for everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that Eastwood, at 91, is still a perfectly competent actor and director. His character is a terrific balance of wit and pathos and there is most definitely a charm to the relationships he forms with Rafo and Marta. The bad news is that there are some glaring problems with this story, like contrived obstacles (why are Leda\u2019s men still combing over small towns weeks after Mike and Rafo should have made it to the border?), too much time devoted to Mike and Rafo hiding out in the small town, and an abrupt ending that seems like the movie simply ran out of money. What drove me crazy was a detail so small it shouldn\u2019t have mattered, but here goes: Rafo says he adopted Macho after the rooster lost five cockfights. I\u2019m no expert on cockfights, but doesn\u2019t losing one traditionally mean that the rooster won\u2019t be alive to participate in another one, let alone four more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film is the latest in a string of \u201cadult on the run with an unfamiliar child\u201d movies. I liked \u201cNews of the World\u201d with Tom Hanks from last Christmas, but I didn\u2019t much care for \u201cThe Marksman\u201d with Liam Neeson, and \u201cThose Who Wish Me Dead\u201d with Angelina Jolie was just a total waste of time. With those last two as competition, I guess I have no choice but to proclaim \u201cCry Macho\u201d the second best of the bunch. It might be one of the \u201cbetter ones,\u201d but I still don\u2019t recommend it overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCry Macho\u201d is playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. The film is rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements. Its running time is 104 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver Like last weekend, this weekend at the box office was underwhelming, especially for new releases. \u201cShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings\u201d continued to dominate… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50576,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50574\/revisions\/50576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}