Robert Redford announced that this would be his last picture as an actor only to rescind that which is a good thing as he must have seen “The Old Man and The Gun”. Nothing wrong with the film except it is pretty lame to use as a swan song!

The movie is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker, who was a serial bank robber, and supposedly was caught 17 times and escaped from jail 17 times. Sounds like it would be a shoot ‘em up, car chases not to mention jail scenes but all you get is one chase scene. Forrest seems to have been a polite and charming bank robber whose victims had nothing bad to say about him and makes for a somewhat boring movie.

Let’s face it that the role should fit Redford like a glove as he is known as a charmer, is known for his smile and no one is Hollywood seems to have anything bad to say about him which really doesn’t make for excitement! We learn very little about who the man was except robbing banks was his job and he loved his job.

We learn very little about his 2 partners in crime Danny Glover and Tom Waits and how they became the Over the Hill Gang.

We do learn more about Casey Affleck as the detective determined to get Tucker but we don’t know why, like we meet his wife and kids but get to know very little about an interracial marriage in Texas in 1981. Tika Sumpter, who plays a real nasty woman in Tyler Perry’s “The Have and The Have Nots” with relish, yet here is the sweet little wife and mother.

The main reason to see this movie is Sissy Spacek. It is far from a revelation to express what a fine actress is but here as Jewel, a woman Redford strikes up a romance with, and in most of their scenes her charm puts his to shame! Like the bank robberies and the aftermaths of being caught, prison and escaping the same, the romance between these two is so low keyed you aren’t sure anything happened!

“The Old Man and The Gun” is a blank and shouldn’t be Redford’s last acting job.



Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7rlUe-Thvk