Please note: While I have made a genuine effort to avoid any spoilers in this write up.. it could still happen - so if you want to go into this movie blind, you better skip this
El Camino is a follow-up to one of my favorite television shows of all time; Breaking Bad. It focuses on what happened to Jesse Pinkman at the conclusion of the series (which by the way, i think is one of best endings to a series that any TV show has ever done) because there were a lot of unanswered questions. The fans spoke and the producers listened.
Rather than simply focus on only what Jesse does after he escapes the meth compound - I kind of enjoy the way that this movie jumps back and forth to scenes that are meant to have happened while he was still involved in the meth game, even during times that he was happily involved in it. I don't know if the scenes were unused stock from Breaking Bad or if they filmed all the flashback scenes anew. Either way they took great care to ensure continuity.
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Jesse Plemons (who i really like and think is a fantastic actor) was a little problematic in the flashbacks since he is noticeably a LOT fatter than he was in Breaking Bad
I found the scenes between Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Todd (aforementioned fatty - Jesse Plemons) to be particularly good because Todd (who the El Camino actually belongs to) always seemed to me to be a decent guy who while dedicated to the criminal enterprise, had a lot of empathy towards Jesse and his captive situation - particularly in the last season of Breaking Bad.
El Camnio sees many of the old characters return for this film and all of them were done extremely well. For me I was surprised at the stand-out performance by Charles Baker and Matt Jones (Jesse's meth-addled idiot friends - on each side of the above picture) because I found them annoying in the series, but they both did an excellent job in the small roles they have in El Camino
From the Netflix official channel
I think it is relatively important that anyone watching this be a fan of Breaking Bad and have watched at least most of the episodes to truly appreciate this film. However, if you are one of the few people that never watched Breaking Bad I actually envy you because IMO that is one of the most perfect TV shows that has ever been made and you should start there.
On tragic side-note: Robert Forster has a minor role in this production and is spectacular in it. It would unfortunately be the last role he would ever play because he died the day the movie was released.
This 2-hour film starts epic and stays that way throughout the entire runtime. I honestly can find no fault in this film whatsoever which is remarkable considering that its total budget was just over $6 million and it was shot over the course of 60 days.
It is rare that I watch a film intently on my sofa as there are far too many distractions in my living room. However, during El Camino I didn't pick up my phone once and even didn't notice my dog whining at my feet because she wanted to get on the sofa (I let her up eventually despite the fact that she is more than capable of accomplishing this feat on her own.)
There is only one bad aspect of this film: When it is finished, you want more...
