Excellent, a Must See

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Aside from starring in this movie, Clint Eastwood directs and produces, "Honkytonk Man" a story of a mindless drifter in the Depression Era who travel to get a big break in music by traveling to Nashville with his nephew Whit (Kyle Eastwood) tagging along with him. Their hopes to get a big break by auditioning at the world famous Grand Ol' Opry. The script was written by Clancy Carlile to which the movie is based on his novel. What drew Eastwood to star in this film can easily reflect on the similar upbringing Eastwood experienced compared to Carlile's. Before his path to stardom, Eastwood, born during the Depression was helping out his father pump gas around the rough roads of the West Coast. And like all performers, they all each had to work menial jobs to make ends meet. In Eastwood's case, he used to be a logger and a steel- furnace stoker. But I feel that Eastwood took the role because in ways that may not necessarily that outwardly. As a whole, the movie is subtle, but energetic feel-good film that never once presses on your luck. The film is refreshingly contrast to Eastwood's normal tough guy films Eastwood is famous for. His son Kyle turns in an equally stunning performance as Whit, who's very smart, independent and is never annoying in his delivery. The events on their traveling is secondary than compares to what happens to them in between. The opening scenes has Red Stovall (Eastwood) driving his old 1930's touring car as it crashes into a windmill as he makes a return to his old homestead. Red has similar persona of Jimmie Rodgers and it doesn't leave a lasting impression towards the rest of the family (except for Nephew Whit). Not only is he an inebriated middle-aged bumpkin, he is also dying from tuberculosis. But that still won't hold him back from chasing his dream to go to Nashville and pay off several IOU's to several people. He is actually a talented singer and musician, just down on his luck and finds that the Grand Ol' Opry might be the savior the unlucky streak he's on.Red wants to bring Whit along, even though Whit's parents are reluctant to do that. But after much thinking, Whit's mother (Verna Bloom) decides to let Whit go on his journey. Just as long as he can help clean up Red from his alcoholism and not do any sort of activities that Red has been infamously known to do which includes fooling around with women and something that his mother made a stern note of. Joining them on their journey is an aging Old Grandpa (John McIntyre) who's also going to Nashville to reunite with friends he hasn't seen in over 40 years.The cinematography of the road scenes are quite impressive with all the remarkable landmarks there and we have the feeling of nostalgia and romance in the air. They take a quick gander at a gambling house where they meet up with a nonconformist young lady (Alexa Kenin) who wants to also go for the ride. She's got quite the talent for taking generic sentiments by adding romantic prose to it. The best scenes are when they're in Nashville when Eastwood auditions at the Opry and then auditions at the recording studio. Although he puts in a good effort, his songs have a bone-weary vibe that doesn't hit the spot of country music until a backup musician kindly lends him a hand. The real gist of this film is all about chasing your dreams and turning your life around. It's quite surprising that the happier scenes are actually quite bittersweet. "Honkytonk Man" has lot of idiosyncrasies that make this very special. It was refreshing that Eastwood took a backseat from his Dirty Harry image to making a more vulnerable character than his normal domain. Sure his violent movies can still be your minds when seeing him perform, but the more he steps away from those movies, you eventually get used to more upbeat projects he eventually starred in like "Gran Torino" and "Million Dollar Baby". He has a bit of a stake coming into this movie, but he's hiding it through the country songs he's performing for his audience.

The Wagoneer farm in Oklahoma is devastated by a dust storm. The family plans to go out to California. The brother Red Stovall (Clint Eastwood) is a sickly drunkard Honkytonk Man going to Nashville to play in the Grand Ole Opry. Grandpa wants to go back home to Tennessee. Whit (Kyle Eastwood) wants to join Red. Red is looking to be repaid $100 by Arnspriger (Barry Corbin). After some misadventures, Red forces Arnspriger to pay up but Marlene (Alexa Kenin) hitches a ride in the trunk.This is a fun road trip. I'm not sure that the acting gene passed on to Kyle. He's OK but nothing special. Alexa Kenin gets some fun hilarity. The big mistake is when the group splits up. The group is just gaining chemistry but then they are scattered to the winds. There is no reason why the group couldn't go all the way to the Opry to see Red perform.

Oddly unlikable, stolid effort directed and co-starring Clint Eastwood (in rueful spirits). Written by Clancy Carlile from his novel, the drama concerns a boozing Depression-era singer in Oklahoma, harboring health problems but about to hit the road for the Grand Ole Opry, taking his street-smart nephew (Kyle Eastwood) along for the journey as his driver. Real-life father and son Eastwood teaming never quite achieves anything special, with young Kyle struggling with his delivery. Many famous country crooners are given cameos, and Clint's vocals are rather pleasing, but this story is low-keyed and uncertain; if it's supposed to be heart-warming, someone forgot the heart. Worse, the golden-hued photography is brackish and unappealing, and the supporting players fail to add any energy. * from ****

This movie has an okay story, a bit in the road-trip theme, and Eastwood's son, Kyle, is an okay actor, but the other actors don't impress me much. Eastwood didn't seem to care much about making the movie an authentic "period piece", and you will often see details in the background from modern times, as well as the haircuts, which are obviously from the early 80's. Several times he shows musicians and they seemed to put the least amount of effort into looking authentic. At the Grand 'Ol Opry, the female singer who is on after Eastwood is singing in a modern style, and anyone who listens to music from the 1930's knows that doesn't fit. Even the music the bands are playing has a 70's/80's sound to it. Maybe they should have got T-Bone Burnett as musical director! They could have had a band on in the vein of the Carter Family, instead. I guess they had a limited budget and it shows, but it could have been a much better movie than it turned out to be. Other things I noticed were, the cement curbs in the really luxurious looking cemetery in the film with all the green grass and trees...excuse me, this is in the 1930's, and as far as I can tell, most graveyards didn't look that maintained, as there was little money. Little things like that that kind of ruin the illusion of a rough period in the US. Even the cars sitting outside the Ryman Theater are highly polished and obviously collector pieces rented for the film and the owners didn't want to get any dust on them. With all the detail Eastwood put into his later masterpiece films, I am a little disappointed, but it is still a decent movie, I gave it a 6 out of 10.