Okay, so it's a reboot. Normally that would send me running away screaming. But this is everything a remake should be. It captures the spirit and the charm of the original, and would be enjoyable by the same audiences. It doesn't shoehorn in political correctness. Even the running time of 80 minutes is a throwback to a simpler world where everyone knew that was plenty of space in which to tell a story. Movies today gobble up two and a half hours of your life, or three hours, or they get split into two entire movies, all for storylines that could have been told in 90 minutes if the editors had just found their fucking balls.
I had a hard time picking a 3.5 or a 4. I can't help but feel I should have like this movie more. It's got my name written all over it: beautiful wilderness, swashbuckling adventure, sympathetic portrayal of (historical) religion, a conflict between nations playing out at the ground level of individual personalities... I can't lay my finger on why I considered it good, but not great.
The procession at ~23 minutes in is superb; I've been meaning to show it to D&D players, including the more orderly, religious part of the procession a few shots later.
Later, after Mendoza has killed his brother, he drags all his equipment up the waterfall in a bag of netting. Nothing attached to his body, around his waist, or on his back.
The bag contains his armor, his sword, and other articles that would be like a second skin to a warrior.
This heist movie doesn't fall into the trap of making fun of its West Virginia setting or the characters that live there. Some characters are hugely country and, yes, simple, but they're not the butts of jokes. They just are who they are.
