The Last Rifleman

The filmmakers do not trust the audience to grapple with these plain elements alone, so they add unsophisticated humor... Whatever life Brosnan tries to infuse into the proceedings is undercut by everything that surrounds his performance.

Corny, yes. But charming, too, like when a nurse delivers a mini-monologue of reasons Artie’s too ill to travel that plays out like a clown car of ailments.

Despite Brosnan's best efforts, this is a movie with its heart in the right place and its head somewhere substantially other.

Seeing the former James Bond play a WWII vet is worth the price of admission by itself.

Pierce Brosnan delivers a compelling performance as real life war veteran Artie Crawford.

A lovely, uplifting and sentimental film.

Brosnan’s Biden-like makeup is a minor distraction from the lackadaisical senior-citizen-on-an-adventure first half, but when solemnity makes an appearance it is often marred by writing that can’t match the emotions of these veterans.

Interestingly, it eschews the use of drab colour filters to let us know when we’re witnessing flashbacks to the conflict. These are obvious enough, and the fact that they take place in bright sunlight makes them much more visibly a part of the real world.

The Last Riflman is the type of film that they don’t make anymore and need to bring back to the theater.

Artie’s story is moving, although the film undermines it with a generic road-trip structure that too often loses sight of its destination.