An Overlooked Chris Pine Movie Is Coming to Netflix This Week
A fantastic, and sometimes overlooked, Chris Pine movie is set to hit Netflix at the beginning of next year. You can't miss this one.
When you think of Chris Pine these days it might be for his work in a couple of major franchises he’s taken part in over the last decade or so. Considering the dude reprised the role of one of the most iconic science fiction space captains out there and also took part in a major comic book film, it would make sense to picture him in these roles. But he’s had some smaller films that have garnered considerable critical acclaim and one of them is about to hit Netflix at the start of next year. That’s right, Hell or High Water will be on the streamer starting January 1st.
Hell or High Water stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as a pair of bank-robbing brothers in Texas. They are dead set on stealing enough money to ultimately cover a loan on their mother’s property before the bank forecloses on the house and land. Chris Pine’s Toby is cool and calm, standing in stark contrast to Foster’s Tanner who is as hotheaded and impulsive as it gets. While they are careful in their robberies, there’s clearly a divide between the two about how they should be handling their business.
During the course of the film their exploits, which you’ll see on Netflix, catch the attention of the local authorities, and the film turns partly into a game of cat and mouse. The brothers are closing in on having enough funds to cover the loan but have to pull off increasingly risk jobs in order to get there before time’s up. It leads Chris Pine and Ben Foster into an impossible series of events and the stakes are high. This is all with the backdrop of oil-laden Texas as the setting, a dusty place that Pine and Foster seem more than comfortable. While Hell and High Water is a movie about bank robbers, it’s more than that as well, acting as an exploration of family and responsibility and the “American Dream”.
Hell or High Water is written by the great Taylor Sheridan who penned other films like Sicario, Wind River, Those Who Wish Me Dead and is currently the showrunner for Paramount’s Yellowstone. He’s a master at dialing up the stakes, giving each of his productions a certain level of tension. This one is no different with Chris Pine and company clearly understanding the role they fit in this world.
Joining Chris Pine and Ben Foster in the Hell or High Water cast is, most notably, Jeff Bridges who plays Marcus Hamilton, the Texas Ranger that is on the bank robbery case. He’s excellent as an aging lawman who seems to understand the brothers as well as anyone. The movie plays on his demeanor as well which stands in juxtaposition to what the other two stars bring to the table. Other names include Amber Midthunder, Gil Birmingham, and Katy Mixon.
The soon-to-be Netflix movie was an absolute smash with the critics who praised everything from Taylor Sheridan’s script, David MacKenzie’s direction, Chris Pine’s and Ben Foster’s star turns and the themes present throughout. It’s a complete film in almost every sense. Hell or High Water is sitting at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and 88 on Metacritic, overwhelmingly high scores. It was nominated for Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Bridges), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Though it didn’t take any home, it’s a testament to just how great this flick is on every level.
As for Chris Pine, well since starring in three Star Trek movies as Captain James T. Kirk in three movies, there is word that he will now reprise the role in a fourth movie. It looks like it will pick back up as part of the same universe though there are few details at this point about it. And he’s also slated to star in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie which has Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley in the directors’ chairs. But that is still a ways off, not set to hit the screen until March of 2023.
And who knows, maybe we haven’t yet seen the last of Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman considering he already came back from the dead once in that franchise. In the meantime, make sure you check out Hell or High Water when it hits Netflix.
