Didn’t Jeff Bridges win the coveted Oscar for best male lead last year for playing a washed up alcoholic musician? Well, he essentially plays the same character, minus the dramatic love story with a woman 20 years his junior, in the Coen Brother’s newest film, True Grit. Bridges stars as Rooster Cogburn, stubborn US Marshall who sets out to help an overtly precocious 14 year-old-girl, Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld), find the man who murdered her father, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). The dynamic duo is also aided by another bounty hunter, LaBeouf (Matt Damon) who is after the same man.

The film is a remake of a 1969 John Wayne film of the same name. Wayne won his sole Oscar for his performance in the film. Although I have not seen it, it seems that Bridges does not do Wayne justice. The role of a drunken fool is too easily played by Bridges as he doesn’t add anything illuminating to the character. However, the audience can almost smell the whisky seeping from his breath even through the screen.

I had high hopes for this film because it is the Coen Brothers. I was expecting something more akin to No Country for Old Men but the film bares no resemblance. Instead, True Grit is a true western film in the classic Americana sense. Its an entertaining film from a passive standpoint. Lest the gore, it would be a holiday family film. I feel like I needed to get a glass of milk and some Oreos. It’s a predictable nostalgic ride to the simpler times of the 50s and 60s

Why did the Coen Brothers decide to regurgitate a hackneyed dated plot with stereotypical roles? It seems like an odd choice for the brothers who usually bring the quirkiest characters to the screen. It really doesn’t bare the mark of Coen. Altogether, the film is not bad, it is just disappointing if you are going into it expecting a Coen Brothers film.

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Eonline! is reporting that the residences of several celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas, Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges, are being threatened by a fast-growing wildfire that has broken out in Montecito, California.

The fire started around 6 p.m. Thursday evening and has spread across 2,500 acres. 100 residences have already been burned, and if the fire continues, 1,500 more homes could be at risk.

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The music-based drama “Crazy Heart” has lined up an all-star cast in the form of Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall.

The feature from CMT Films and Informant Media is based on the 1989 Thomas Cobb novel of the same name, which follows an alcoholic, down-on-his-luck country music singer (Bridges) who attempts to get his life and career back on track with the help of a reporter (Gyllenhaal).

Scott Cooper wrote the screenplay and will also direct, while Grammy-winning singer-songwriter T-Bone Burnett will produce original music for the film and soundtrack.

Variety reports that Bridges, who released an album in 2000 called “Be Here Soon,” will perform in the film.

Shooting is set to begin in and around Santa Fe, N.M., in August, and the film is scheduled to hit theatres in mid-2009.

Both Bridges and Gyllenhaal can be seen in superhero blockbusters this summer, with the former appearing in “Iron Man” and the latter sharing the screen with Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight.”

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