The Hero 2017

     Lee Hayden is a former actor and his best film was the western titled The Hero.  That was 40 years ago and he’s hasn’t had any movie offers in a long time.  He lives in Malibu and he gets by with voice over jobs for commercials.  He learns from his doctor that he has pancreatic cancer.  He can’t decide if he wants to tell anyone or if he wants to seek treatment.  He meets Charlotte Dylan, she is a friend of Jeremy Frost.  Lee and Jeremy acted together in The Hero and they remained friends.  Lee is offered a Lifetime Achievement Award and he asks Charlotte to be his date.  She agrees and there is a surprising turn of events at the ceremony.

     Lee smokes a lot of weed with Jeremy and drinks a lot of booze.  This is how he gets through his days.  He gets a real shakeup from the cancer diagnosis.  The plot is very familiar with other movies about a selfish man reaching the end of the line?  Sam Elliott is 72 years old and he can say a lot by saying nothing.  The current survival rates for pancreatic cancer are 20% for one year and 7% for five years.  The scenery of the coast and the ocean is very beautiful.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

93 min, Comedy directed by Brett Haley with Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, Katharine Ross, Ali Wong, Cameron Esposito, Dough Cox, Max Gail, Jackie Joyner, Patrika Darbo, Frank Collison, Andy Allo.

Note:  Imdb 6.6 out of 10, 78% critic 60% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*, Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 262 reviews, Metacritic 61 out of 100 with 28 critics 6.9 out of 10 with 18 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Los Angeles, California.  Recently Sam Elliott has been in the film Grandma with Lily Tomlin.  Katharine Ross in the role of Valarie, Lee’s former wife hasn’t been in a film in ten years.  She is also married to Sam Elliott.  The original title was Iceberg.  Laura Prepon is a principle character in the series Orange is the New Black.