Tin Soldier

This latest entry in the "geezer teaser" cinematic universe is surprisingly competent-and still totally skippable. Foxx and De Niro actually show up more than just for the poster (a rarity!), but most of the heavy lifting is done by Scott Eastwood, who's... fine. He doesn't embarrass himself, which already makes him an MVP in this genre even if he lacks gravitas.

Instead of going full action schlock, Tin Soldier tries to get deep and psychological, which is bold for a movie with such poor editing. Because the emphasis is on the story and on the human angle rather than on schlocky action, my standards for the writing and acting were lifted. Unfortunately, it's here that the film really fails to deliver. The body count is low, the trauma is high, and Jamie Foxx plays a cult leader so unconvincing you'd wonder how he even got people to follow him on TikTok, let alone into armed rebellion. Foxx is loud and aggressive, but he's not seductive or persuasive the way he would need to be as a cult leader.

There are some cool visuals-Eastwood's inner torment gets the psychedelic treatment-but the writing stumbles hard. The movie wants to be about healing and identity, but forgot to make any of that feel earned. Foxx yells vague anti-government stuff, Eastwood broods, and at no point do you believe these two were ever in the same cult.

The film could have worked if we saw Eastwood grappling with his allegiance to the cult, and if a proper parallel had been made between letting go of the rage and anger resulting from his trauma and symbolically represented by Foxx and the cult. Instead, Eastwood is in opposition to the cult from the film's start, and we never really see him being swayed by anything Foxx says or conflicted about what to do. The ending feels completely unearned.

Shoutout to the final showdown, where the movie ditches reality altogether and swan-dives into Mad Max cosplay. Foxx rallies his cloak-wearing cult at a dam that looks like a Bond villain's Airbnb, and suddenly we're in Thunderdome territory! Eastwood and Foxx brawl in a literal arena, surrounded by fireballs and chanting dudes like it's post-apocalyptic Fight Club. Oh, and Eastwood planted a bomb with a big ol' timer. I probably would have enjoyed the whole film more if it had maintained this level of insanity throughout. Sigh!

In the end, it's too serious to be fun, and too sloppy to be serious. If you're looking for meaningful drama or mindless action, you'll come away disappointed.

It's not hard to make a bad film. But it's hard to get the money together to involve actors of this level in something like this.

It's possible that viewers might wonder if the financiers were seeking to exchange money of a certain type for money of another variety. I wouldn't want to conjecture about that.

It's not just the spend on the leads either, it doesn't look cheap for the most part. And there's some kind of ham-fisted attempt to deliver a message too. It's not for me to be offended by the take on combat PTSD that's being put before us here, although I can imagine others would be.

It really is awful though.

A movie filled with a bunch of quazi-religious overtones with some sprinkled in semi-narcissistic half-baked para-bu(ll)shido made up sort-of-kinda japanese sounding titles/words and a whole slew of useless filters on top of slow-mo and a seemingly acid-tripping editor trying to bring his LSD-visions onto the screen between the dark scenes with blinking lights and WAY too many close-up shots jockeying back and forth between faces and people.

Story was bad and barely made sense, the actors were probably (?) doing their best and failing at it, leaving the result a mess of a movie, a waste of money and about an hour and 5 mins - as I FFWed several times to skip the most annoying scenes of grand-standing monologuing and preaching - of my life I'll never get back.

It had about NOTHING to do with PTSD besides mentioning it in passing and the best thing about this movie was the people behind the scenes that were paid to work on it. And I'm not counting the actors in front of the camera into the crew here.

When I stumbled upon this I didn't even think it was real, but it is! A movie with Jamie Foxx AND Robert DeNiro and not one trailer? Why are they not promoting this? I soon found out...This is one of the silliest things I have ever seen.

There are three main problems. First is the story itself. The narrative choice they made to tell the story in voiceover, flashbacks and then back to present day in a way that makes the timeline really confusing. Did this happen ten years ago or five? When did the character make this decision? How long were they together vs apart? How long did they know where a certain character was? Made it really hard to be invested in the character relationships that we are presented with. Also the cult titles/honorifics- Shinja, Bokushi? Pure lol wtf.

Second is Jamie Foxx as the villain. He's got this crazy wig and beard, straight hamming it up. I just couldn't take him seriously in what's supposed to be a deathly serious role.

The third and biggest problem is Scott Eastwood as the protagonist. I don't know why they keep asking him to carry lead roles. He is textbook nepo baby. He's got the looks and the name but he lacks the presence/gravitas of a leading man. There's an ironic scene close to the end where the villain PERFECTLY describes who Eastwood is in real life: a guy who always comes up short because he just doesn't have the mettle.

What about DeNiro? Well, he's in this for like, five minutes tops. They could have got any old character actor to do what he did, which wasn't much.

One star for Jamie Foxx looking crazy which is the only entertainment value. Real waste of time and talent.

Lineup consisted or Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro and John Leguizamo. Within the first ten minutes Rita Ora was hanging from the gateway. This is the moment I should have turned it off. The storyline was ok but the execution and cinematography were awful, at one point I was considering booking an appointment at Specsavers because the screen was blurred and shaking. Sadly Scott Eastman isn't his dad and blurred and shaky screen tried to make up for woeful acting and zero charisma. DeNiro is one of my favourite actors but this is a bit part for a pay day. My advice is to stay clear of this dreadful film.