Broken Horses (2015) Reviews

• Don't listen to the haters because it's a good movie

  deloudelouvain2015-11-24

  What actual makes me laugh when I read the reviews on IMDb is that most of the time movies with mediocre reviews are to me the best ones and movies with outstanding reviews I find them almost unwatchable. I don't know if it's me or if it is just the posh people that like movies from Lars Von Trier and David Lynch that review the most movies but I question myself if I have bad taste or what? I thought Broken Horses was a really good movie, with enough suspense to keep you interested during the whole movie. Unlike boring movies from Von Trier and Lynch where the story sucks big time and you kind of wish the movie ends as soon as possible. With this one I didn't get bored a second. Chris Marquette plays the mildly retarded brother brilliantly. I couldn't fail any of the actors actually. They were all good. The filming is also good and the story is also good. Everything about this movie is just good. Why it only gets such a low score on here is a mystery to me.

• A shoddy mediocre remake of a classic Parinda... This wont make India proud VVC

  jmoneyjohal2015-04-10

  Twenty Five years later, Vidhu Vinod Chopras Parinda has returned as Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Broken Horses, with Mexico's dust bowls replacing Mumbai's mean streets, a ranch on a lake replacing a crucial boat, two brothers joined by love and circumstances now also tied by a slight mental disability, and a lot less blood and a lot more conscious style. So while Chopra's 'Parinda was a pathbreaker in 1989, giving the first gritty portrayal of the underworld in Bollywood, his first Hollywood venture won't make any waves on those well-trodden shores. Particularly as Parinda itself drew comparisons with a film that preceded it by three decades, On the Waterfront. Chopra keeps Broken Horses short and crisp at around 100 minutes, and its violence precise and clipped, a welcome break from similar films that thrive on their glorious celebration of blood. However, with a wisp of a backstory and an embarrassingly simple front one, its largely solid acting can only get it accolades it for its ambition. 'Somewhere near the Mexico border', a sheriff is killed while admiring how good a shot his elder son, Buddy â€" otherwise considered rather "slow" â€" is. The younger one, Jacky, is more inclined towards violin than guns, and is safely at school at the time. Soon after the funeral, Buddy is paid a visit at the diner where he works by Julius Hench (D'Onofrio), who tells him that "a bad man" killed his father and so he should take revenge. So while Jacky (now played by a hopelessly out-of-depth, and very hopefully curled-hair Yelchin) heads for New York and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Buddy grows up to be the henchman of Hench. Something keeps Jacky away from his hometown, and while you may think the reason is obvious, apparently the younger one has no clue what his elder brother, who can't keep no secrets, does. Jacky finds a girl, a pretty Italian no less, to marry, and Buddy calls him home to give him his wedding gift. Soon enough, for reasons that remain unconvincing, things unravel and complicate. D'Onofrio, modelled after Nana Patekar, is as ruthless and convinced of his own brand of justice, and as afraid of fire since shoving his wife and son into it. One of his "victims" though, a music teacher named Ignacio is so hilariously over the top that one can only be grateful he doesn't stick around to repeat the story about his missing legs. The best role is of Buddy, played admirably by Marquette. As the brother who has been shouldering the family manfully but is also acutely aware of his own shortcomings, he is nervous around the smarter Jacky, the powerful Hench, as well as the other smirking henchmen, and always very, very eager to please. It's a tough balancing act, to be both brave and weak. Shot by Clint Eastwood's favourite cameraperson, and with Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi on board as consultant, Broken Horses also gets its settings right, from its dust-track roads and dust-lined vehicles to its one-horse towns. However, should you keep waiting for all of it to amount to something more, you would be disappointed. The moral of the story for Chopra: If you want to try something new, perhaps go for something new.

• just a yarn

  papukamakshi2015-04-14

  As "Broken Horses" was drawing to a close, I formulated my review. I had just one sentence: "You could do worse than spend a totally free evening --when there's no cricket, even--watching this movie." It is just a yarn, spun without imagination, and that yarn isn't substantial enough to be woven into a unique design. There were a couple of twists and turns, some modicum of suspense, many efforts to get the tear ducts opening, but all through I kept thinking, "This is kind of embarrassing." If the movie theater had been full, I dare say there would have been guffaws at the flat story-telling and the clunky dialogs. That would have amused me. With movies on familiar themes you want slick treatment, snappy dialog, and a sound-track that tells some of the story without the aid of words. And in this movie where music is a major theme, I really missed the magic an original score and sound-effects can play. That's it. You aren't likely to go bananas about any aspect of this film, except may be the photography. Having seen this, I am not dying to see "Parinda" either.

• Meh

  maclock2015-04-11

  I expected more of this film. Performances offered by Vincent D'Onofrio normally impress me, but this movie is so overwhelmingly bleak, the story so implausible, and the characters -- Buddy, Jakey, and Vittoria aside -- so unlikeable, that even his performance could not save this underwhelming picture. I will say this: the cinematography was amazing. I had a real sense of place the whole time that I watched it in the cinema. If you can suspend reality and accept the completely implausible premises set up by whoever wrote this mess of a movie, then you may well leave the theatre raving about what an excellent film it is. You may even mumble that the principals involved and the actors featured in it deserve consideration for various prizes. Not me, though. I can accept that it is alright, but I will not be singing its praises anytime soon. I would take a pass on Broken Horses if I were you.

• A film with good sponsors but I just don't get it...

  joebloggscity2015-12-16

  I don't get it. This movie has some high levels supporters (such as James Cameron) praising the movie, yet I can't see in any way how they are able to back it up. We have here a film centring round two brothers, who are caught in the middle of a corruption ring. One brother is slow witted and is being used whilst the other is trapped in his efforts to help his brother. It's about brotherhood, loyalty, blood etc etc. The problem is that it just isn't gripping. The storyline is mostly poor and nothing complex, but the underlying themes need something challenging. It's absent here. The main leads are fair enough and not big names, working hard with the material in front of them, but they can little save this. The cinematography is beautiful and so is the natural scenery, but that's as good as it gets. Not by any means the poorest film of late, but one that I can't seem to like. If it wasn't for the major sponsors of this film it likely would never have got any of the attention it ever did.