JWJanneck

This movie tries very, VERY hard to be funny, and it has the acting talent to be. Both the wife and I are huge fans of Blunt, and I have found Gosling quite tolerable in many efforts, including forgiving him for his turn in Blade Runner.

But alas, it is marred by a nonsensical script, a fascination with its own subject, a lack of reflective (i.e. Funny) humor that too often tends toward slapstick (little wonder given the stunt theme), and a reliance on absurd and pointless action (ditto).

As the over-extended Gosling struggles through the nonsense, I glanced at my watch numerous times, hoping in vain (and in sync with the underused Blunt character) it would not end in a slushy BS and they lived happily ever after nonsense, which seemed increasingly looming over the end. I won't spoil the non-existent "surprise" but say that it's all a largely pointless waste of time, so unless you have something better to do, like reflect with sadness on Blunt's career, you can probably spend your 2h more productively. And you should.

This show is only incidentally a "modern Western", or about some Marshall dispensing swift "justice". It's in essence about the tribal power games of a bunch of Kentucky hicks driven by greed, ambition, and stupidity and only rarely tempered by moral considerations, where conflicts are frequently created by bad, impulsive judgments and decisions, and often solved by the pervasive use of seemingly ubiquitous firearms. In many ways, it's like Game of Thrones, but with less sex (although Olyphant does get to bed his share of attractive females) and nudity. The story lines of the individual episodes are mostly simple, but they get woven into the season's plot which provides a richer substrate, and which makes it great for binge watching. The overall setup is rich and compelling and it will draw you in, the acting is very good, all in all 'd say I enjoy the show. Not sure it can be viewed multiple times, but a first viewing is definitely recommended...

I suppose if you've seen the previous installments, you had to expect this: an overlong sequence of the most absurd action with a massive body count, strung together by the thinnest of plots. If that's your thing, and it would seem it is for many people, then you will likely enjoy this film.

Myself, I got bored after a short while, because there is only so many times I can enjoy watching someone getting offed by a close-range headshot. The nearly three hours exceed that count by quite a margin, the various (interesting) locations, and (vile) opponents that make up said thin plot notwithstanding. After nearly three hours, I was glad this thing was over. I guess it works on a technical level (it *is* well made), but it didn't work for me. I hope it does for you.