El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

Directed by: Vince Gilligan | 117 minutes | action, crime | Actors: Aaron Paul, Jonathan Banks, Matt Jones, Charles Baker, Todd Terry, Julie Pearl, Gregory Steven Soliz, Larry Hankin, Jesse Plemons, Tom Bower, Gloria Sandoval, Tess Harper, Michael Bofshever, Danielle Todesco, Scott MacArthur, Scott Shepherd , Marla Gibbs, Robert Forster

Admittedly, as a viewer, the undersigned is not familiar with the series “Breaking Bad”, of which this feature film is a spin-off or epilogue. Apparently, after the series ended in 2013, series viewers were sent home with a cliffhanger, a lure to enjoy ‘El Camino’.

Jesse Pinkman (Paul) makes a spectacular escape from captivity at the beginning of the film, and tries to build a new future, so much the layman gets to know. Pinkman moves incognito among the grit of society, traveling from motel to motel. There are flashbacks with some sort of cell underground.

Pinkman is being hunted, as in ‘No Country for Old Men’ for the murderer Anton Chigurh, but without a history. That makes this film difficult to grasp for the unsuspecting viewer, after all, it is impossible to understand what Pinkman is going through or has gone through, although some characters from the series (including Walter, Ed) briefly return.

‘El Camino’ has tense moments, there are corrupt cops, money is being hunted; we can’t spoiler how this movie ends. We think it would be interesting viewing for the fans, but without BB experience this film is not recommended. Pinkman is a survivor, and they are no sweethearts. But the layman can never get a hold of who exactly he is facing.

The latter can be blamed on the makers (Gilligan also directed the series), and ‘El Camino’ cannot immediately be called innovative cinema with startling acting violence or humor à la the Coen brothers. Moreover, this Netflix production only came about six years after the last episode of “Breaking Bad”, I think a little late. A candy for the fans, that’s what we keep at it.