My Review: True Grit

"Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!" A classic Western line that was said better in the original True Grit by none other than John Wayne. I've never been a big fan of Westerns, but the original True Grit was a great movie, and this remake didn't disappoint either. Jeff Bridges was perfect as Rooster Cogburn. With his squinty facial expressions and partially unintelligable southern accent, he was great as the Marshall with "true grit." Personally, I can't see anyone else in this role, except, of course, for John Wayne. He's tough and grumpy, and is fantastic with lines like, "well that didn't pan out." This was definitely one of my favorite Jeff Bridges performances. I also loved Hailee Stienfeld as Maddie Ross. She was definitely less annoying than the original Maddie, and did great acting along seasoned actors like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, who played Texas Ranger LaBeouf. Tom Chaney didn't have that big of a part in the original movie, but I hoped that they would have expanded his role a bit since he was played by Josh Brolin. They really didn't though, but it didn't matter because Mr. Brolin was fantastic in what few scenes he had.
Overall this movie was basically the same as the original, even using a bunch of the same dialogue. There were a few differences though, like a great scene where Cogburn was trying to prove to LaBeouf how well he could shoot. The snake scene in the original was far scarier in my opinion, but they did make a change to it that I liked. In the original, after Maddie gets bitten by a snake, Cogburn just rides off to the doctor, and while watching it I kept thinking, "Why doesn't he suck the venom out?" In this movie, though, he does, and I thought that was a great addition.
You don't really have to be a fan of Westerns to enjoy this movie. There's plenty of action and humor, and great performances by the entire cast. This was a great movie to be my last movie seen in 2010, and it really makes me wonder if the Coen Brothers can make a bad movie...My rating: 9/10