Tin Soldier

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.

This film is one of those examples for film students on how one should Not utilize flash backs as a substitute for terrible script writing.

Be prepared for 90% horrible flash backs and it's not brilliant like Memento and feels like Demento.

It's hard to believe considering this director did great films like The Infiltrator.

This film is a horrible attempt at dealing with a sensitive subject like ptsd but mixed it with a silly Jones cult story that is lost in translation and unfortunately does a hatchet job in both execution and editing that it ends up turning into a tossed messed up salad that makes one wonder if the writer and director suffer also from ptsd.

What a sad waste of top talent of Deniro whose lame character 6 mins is not justified and Scott Eastwood ( who seems to have a knack for picking lemons - even though he tries his best in this silly film), and the funniest best razzie of the year award is Jamie Foxx - starring as a cross of Carrot Head meets 70s Shaft with the worst hair wig ever.

This film is a thankfully only 75 minute disaster that if one removes the top cast it is a B film that Steven Siegel would be perfect except I read somewhere the budget was $39m so maybe it was a huge payday for Deniro and Jamie Fox.

Watch with low expectations

3 stars.

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.

Right, I've never written a review on here before, but what in the actual cinematic landfill did I just watch?! Absolute ****e. I spent the entire runtime playing "Spot the Logic"-spoiler alert: it's not in the film. Like, why wouldn't he shoot there, there, ooooh, and THERE? And the co-pilot-was he recruited from a local paintball team? Because that's the only explanation for his complete lack of military know-how.

Then there's the psychedelic fever dream running through the whole thing. The effects? Like someone discovered After Effects and ketamine on the same day. Dialogue? Written by a sentient lava lamp. Was the director microdosing through production or just full-on licking toads?

As for the acting-I'll let you decide, but personally, I think both leads have been stuck in the same character loop since 2014. It's giving "Mark Wahlberg in autopilot mode," where every role is just a remix of the last. Scott Eastwood's performance? Like watching a mannequin try to emote. And DeNiro? Blink and you'll miss him-probably cashed the cheque before the camera even rolled.

Jamie Foxx deserves a special mention for rocking the worst wig since Nicolas Cage's tax bill era. He looks like Shaft got lost in a cosplay convention and wandered onto the wrong set.

In summary: Awful. ******* awful. If this film were a vinyl, I'd drive over and frisbee it into Burnley!

I watched this with a couple people but if alone wouldn't have bothered after 15 minutes. I guess I expected more with the sectors involved and director but wow this is not watchable. It's boring and everyone watching spent most of the time just playing around on their phones. Hollywood writers are nothing but disappointing most of the time these days and actors aren't even trying it seems. They just want a pay check. The plot was an ok premise but poor execution. The character development just didn't make sense and you didn't care about any of them. Hard choices easy life, easy choices hard life. It's not a hard choice not to watch this movie.