Cavalos Domados

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.

So we have a true-blue Hollywood film directed by a true-blue Bollywood director, and barring a few like Shekhar Kapoor, this feat is as rare as it gets. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi took the drafts of Parinda and ran them over the barren landscapes of crime- infested US-Mexico border and to be fair did not make a complete mess out of it. There are enough things to appreciate here. The performances are impressive and so is the cinematography. The movie does not fail due to the want of acting chops or production quality. What it lacks is plain, strong storytelling.

It had all the makings of a strong, moody tale with sparse characters and dusty landscapes of a Western. It could have even aimed somewhere between Unforgiven and A History Of Violence but unfortunately ended up way off-the-mark. The tension and mood that Chopra tries to build could have worked so well had it not been for the predictable turn of events and all too familiar tropes of brotherly sagas. Eventually, the plot just doesn't have enough conflicts and the story is much rather fit for a TV movie or a 40 minute episode rather than a 2 hour movie.

Consequently, the events seem stretched and apart from the intended ones, boredom is one of the major emotions you'll feel undergoing this ordeal. The melodrama doesn't help either. Marquette has the most to do and overplays the slow-brained older brother. Anton Yelchin is controlled but it's Vincent D'Onofrio as Julius Hench who makes the movie watchable with his menacing demeanor. His overbearing persona is pitch-perfect and his performance alone deserved a better movie.

It's not that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has done a bad job but he just hasn't done enough with the job at hand. What's there on the screen looks half-baked and incomplete and the movie lacks that punch and tension that you expect from a drama like this. The cinematography by the brilliant Tom Stern (long time Clint Eastwood collaborator) is the other aspect of the movie that lands it above the usual fare.

'Broken Horses' ends up as a job half done but not for the lack of resources at hand. I would still take heart from the fact that Bollywood meets Hollywood isn't the easiest of marriages and Chopra's attempt deserves attention, if only he can learn from it and deliver the next time.

(Upperstall.com)

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.

Greetings again from the darkness. The old adage "blood is thicker than water" has always been fruitful movie fodder. Writer/director Vidhu Vinod Chopra takes the theme to a small, dusty town on the Mexico border. He introduces us to the sons of the local sheriff … Buddy is the slow-witted eldest and Jakey the bespectacled musical prodigy.

Buddy is flashing his dead-eye aim at the shooting range when his father (Thomas Jane) is murdered right in front of him. Local mobster Mr. Hench (Vincent D'Onofrio) seizes the opportunity to utilize young Buddy's need for revenge. Jump ahead 15 years, and Jakey (Anton Yelchen, Star Trek) is engaged to Vittoria (Maria Valverde) and living in New York City as a classical violinist. Things get interesting when Buddy (Chris Marquette) entices Jakey to come visit after being away for eight years.

Jake isn't in town very long before he fully understands that Hench has a grip on Buddy, who is now a full-fledged hit-man engulfed in the various border gang wars. Here is where the brotherly bond kicks in. Watching it play out against the manipulative power of Hench provides the meatiest conflict within the film. The brothers admit to living on "different planets", but it's clear that their traumatic childhood has connected them in a manner that time and distance can't break … even though one of them more readily identifies "bad men".

Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints) has an odd, but hyper-energetic small role, but most of the screen time is taken by D'Onofrio, Yelchin and Marquette. A better written role for Ms. Valverde would have been advantageous, but mostly this is a solid little crime drama with an emphasis on brotherly bond.

Broken Horses is broken on so many levels. To begin with, I will take the kid who can't act first. Whoever did the casting concentrated on his features alone, that and how much he would resemble Chris Marquette growing up. As the lame boy struggles with his lines without an expression on his face, Thomas Jane goes on to show his acting prowess by imparting brilliant gravity to his role.

We soon meet a guy called Hench played quite beautifully by Vincent D'Onofrio. Surprisingly his entrance and introduction to the tale gets smeared by poor direction. An unimportant dispensable element to the story was Ignacio played by Sean Patrick Flanery. He gets lost in a pointless plot. So does a horse that was merely kept to justify the movie moniker, and also to blast out five seconds after two bullets get fired.

Chris as Buddy seemed as if he was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. The plot that surrounded Garza too was an exercise in futility.

Screenplay is really poor. The drama also doesn't stir you up. Actors seem to act on preordained tracks. The score is average albeit occasionally the violin would take things up for a while. The direction is quite mediocre and scrambles awkwardly with a predictable plot. It lingers along with the poor editing of the movie and goes on in a weird pace.

There is one scene wherein the camera captures Buddy in the background mourning as his brother beseeches Hench to let him help his brother out. I didn't comprehend why was there a need to take all three of them in a single shot? He looked more animated acting at a distance, unfocused, mourning, simply spoiling the gravity of the talk. Even little things in the movie are explained or told by actors taking audience for fools. For instance, as we see a grown up Buddy version he instantly tells his brother that he had a haircut. I mean, why do you even need to spell it out? We knew who he was! Du-uh!

The movie being a Vidhu Vinod Chopra flick, I went in with high expectations. That could have been the cause of my big disappointment. There was nothing thrilling. Just a bland tale projected with a bleak vibe.

Eventually, I would still call it an average flick uplifted only because of Vincent and Anton's performances. However, I would suggest you pass this one!