El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2109) Review

"What kind of pizza do you like, Jesse?"
-Todd Alquist




Spoilers ahead.  If you've seen Breaking Bad, go check this movie out.  It's worth your time.  If you haven't seen Breaking Bad, drop what you're doing and go watch it.  You're missing out.

El Camino is an epilogue to Breaking Bad that shows what happened to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) after the end of the series.  He has to avoid both cops and criminals as he tries to find a way out of Albuquerque.


What Works:

Aaron Paul is definitely the best part of El Camino.  He gives a fantastic performance.  He's been through so much and it's not over yet.  He's desperate and determined.  What's really nice is that he's still Jesse, but has learned a thing or two from Walter White (Bryan Cranston) over the years.

I love everything at Todd's (Jesse Plemons) apartment.  It's a really exciting sequence.  We get an amazing overhead shot of Jesse searching the apartment and then we get a really intense sequence of Jesse facing off against Neil (Scott MacArthur) and Casey (Scott Shepherd).  It's a lot of fun and I really wasn't sure where it was going.

I also loved the first scene between Jesse and Ed Galbraith (Robert Forster).  Paul does really well against this veteran actor and the interactions between the two are great.  It's really well directed.

My favorite scene of the movie is the old-west duel between Jesse and Neil.  I wasn't expecting it at all, but I loved it.  Jesse pulls off a Walter-esque move and outsmarts Neil in beautiful fashion.  It's a wonderful endpoint for the character.

Finally, it was fun seeing so many characters we know and love.  We get some great moments via flashbacks with Walt and Mike (Jonathan Banks), but the best is in the first act of the movie with Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matt Jones).  It's awesome seeing Pete be an awesome friend to Jesse and do everything he can to help him.  It's one of the most wholesome moments in the entire series.


What Sucks:

I don't think this movie was really necessary.  It was fun, sure, but Breaking Bad ended the series so well that we really didn't need this.  The movie doesn't really do anything too amazing.

Finally, I found Jesse to be frustrating at time during the flashbacks sequences.  He had so many opportunities to escape and the one time he went for it, Todd managed to talk him out of it.  I just didn't buy it.  I know Todd threatened to kill a kid Jesse was fond of, but come on.  I still think Jesse would have gone for it.  It just didn't jive.


Verdict:

El Camino is a solid epilogue to Breaking Bad with some really fun sequences, good character moments, and an excellent performance from Aaron Paul.  This movie isn't really necessary and parts of the flashbacks don't work for me, but this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good      

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