The Mule

If there had also been a lot of smoking in this movie, it would definitely have been Jaroslav Kubera's favorite film. The most annoying thing about the film is that it tries to sell itself as the outsider story of an old fart in a present incomprehensible to him, doing so at a time when social demands under the banner of the winning slogan "Make America Great Again" call for exactly these types of characters and roles. Not to mention how much the semi-dead and nearly immobile Eastwood, relishing in spouting controversial minority epithets, which he qualifies as his right given his advanced age, resembles that unfortunate creature in our country sitting in Prague Castle. Who knows if it was more due to Schenk or to Eastwood, but the film's seemingly conciliatory toothlessness then permanently suggests that, while no one has anything against lesbians or blacks, a time when old grease monkeys begin losing their honest, sweat-stained jobs to the Internet is the same as a time in which it has become no longer desirable to call lesbians dykes and blacks negroes. So let's not be fooled for a second that this film doesn't do politics. You can try to retreat into comfortable escapism and get swept up in the story, but I don't recommend that either, because the film is not even able to exploit its plot holes for the sake of entertainment, but instead does exactly the opposite. The boring Pilcher-esque part with the late coming together of the family (yes, even featuring cancer) is annoying in itself. But if you have to keep thinking that none of this would have happened if a Mexican cartel had been so kind as to place a GPS tracker in the car carrying three kilos of coke for them, it's practically unbearable. It's unbearable even to mention the police work, which is actually based on information from a single informant. Fans of early Harmony Korine or Gaspar Noé will surely get what they came for in the scenes where the undead Eastwood, with the light already shining through his eyes from the other side, gets wild with the ladies. (06/19/2019)

At an impressive stage of his career, Clint Eastwood delivers a professional performance both behind the camera and in front of it. He continues to make films because he still enjoys doing it and because his position in the American film industry allows him to do so. What he showcases in The Mule he has already done in the past (much) better and more convincingly. His film lacks tempo and elements of sentiment creep into it. The routine execution can't be overlooked, but you can't blame the old man for portraying his social type, a guy who has forgotten the times when things were still in their place, when there were two genders and men knew how to change tires, he has been honing it for several decades now. Overall impression: 55%. (07/09/2021)

Clint Eastwood is still in fine form at 88, both as a director and actor, and he's chosen a decently attractive subject, one of the oldest drug smugglers ever. Eastwood does a great job, dancing, drinking, having a threesome with two babes, moving drugs in huge quantities back and forth, and managing to properly wisecrack. The pair of agents, Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña, always on Clint's heels, are also very good. A very easy-going and enjoyable film that will entertain, thrill, move and put a smile on your face. Those who like Eastwood and films about cartels and drugs will not be disappointed. 80% (02/12/2019)

The Mule doesn't rely on pure rawness and relentless depression like Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby. Clint Eastwood's latest film has a fairly laid-back undertone, which, given the subject matter of smugglers and the cartel, might seem like a mistake, even an oxymoron, but the opposite is true. Clint manages to dance, sing and cackle like a young man on the cusp of 90, with a few kilos of drugs here and there. Besides the smuggling line, the film also focuses on family-relationship themes, and even though it plays on emotions at times, I still welcomed this level and didn't mind it. It's not Clint's masterpiece, but the film still thrills, entertains and moves, and that's what cinema is all about. And the icing on the cake is the absolutely superb cast. (03/21/2019)

Without the necessary dramatic drive, The Mule is a lukewarm cup of afternoon tea. Interesting thanks only to Eastwood’s personality and his old man of questionable character who, as a husband, dad and grandpa, tries to improve the relationships in his family. This level does not bring forth anything powerful, much less original, and the thriller plotline focused on smuggling looks nicely oldschool, but it doesn’t captivate. The villains are not scary enough, and we are not that worried about our “hero” being imperiled by them. Maybe because almost no one in his story would really miss him. (12/24/2018)