This review is kind of difficult for me. The Breaking Bad tv show ended almost 6 years before this movie came out and I don’t know who it’s made for. It doesn’t have the Breaking Bad feel to it and even though it has the same writing staff, they seem to forget the character they’re writing about.

Aaron Paul is a tremendous actor, but his best roles are as a costar rather than the clear lead, which isn’t a disrespect to his acting ability. Take Oscar winning actor Christopher Walken. Won an Oscar for best Supporting role in The Deer Hunter and earned a best Supporting Nomination for Catch Me If You Can. In fact, most of Walken’s iconic roles were as a supporting actor.

And Jesse Pinkman, played by Paul, is the kind of character who can take command of a scene or two but not a whole feature film. And the writers kept switching Jesse’s character when the plot fit it. Some scenes he has a deep Batman voice, being level headed and one step ahead in some scenes and in others he’s just kinda clueless. There was never an established voice for Jesse and the whole movie might’ve just been better as inserted scenes into the actual show to give it some more depth.

But lets just into the plot so you can see for yourself.

The movie starts off with Jesse and Mike Ehrmantraut….try saying that 3 times fast…it’s a nice quiet connecting scene where the two men discuss the idea of leaving the meth business and starting over. Mike explains that Alaska is nice. The scene then quickly transitions to Jesse minutes after the Breaking Bad series finale. Fresh out of a shootout and fleeing the police. He eventually finds safety at the house of his friends Stinky Pete and Cougar. Now I know that’s not their names, but when you wait 6 years between show and movie, I don’t have time to relearn everyone’s backstory. And that might be the biggest problem with the movie. So much time has passed that now I have to either rewatch the entire series or try to remember where everyone was at the finale. Also, characters look a lot different and I don’t remember if all these minor characters where in the actual show.

So Jesse hides the El Camino in the backyard and passes out for the night.  He awakens in a panic, imagining that he is still captured by The Brotherhood, a name I had to look up again. Jesse takes a shower and shaves off his beard and hair, much to the dismay of Pete because when you’re being hunted by the police and others, its best to look like the only picture they have of you on file. This is Jesse being Jesse. Jesse trades cars with his friends and goes off to Todd’s apartment. Where he spends the entire night looking for Todd’s hidden stash of cash.

We are then shown a long and rather amazing flashback of Jesse helping out Todd, played by Jesse Plemons, get rid of a body. Since Todd looks a lot different since the TV show, I actually forgot all of their previous interactions and thought this was a new character entirely.

After the two bury the body in the desert, Jesse grabs Todd’s gun out of the car and for a brief moment I thought this is where Jesse gets away. Because why would you give up the gun to a guy who is clearly going to put you back in the cage or kill you, especially when you have such a distance between you two. Again, Jesse being Jesse.

We cut back to Jesse finally able to locate the money, but a pair of police officers, Casey and Neil, walk in and a standoff ensures. Jesse surrenders to them and he quickly learns they aren’t real police and are just looking for the same money Todd has stashed. How they know about Todd’s money, don’t know.

Jesse reveals to them he knows where it is and Jesse bargains with Neil into letting him take some of the money. Neil agrees and they part ways. Not before Jesse sees the van Neil is driving and remembers that Neil built his cage.

Jesse then drives to Ed Gaibraith’s vacuum shop. Now, for those who have photographic memories, this the man who helps people disappear and apparently Jesse owes him 125 thousand for a job that never happened. So it’s going to cost Jesse an additional 125 thousand on top of the first one to help him disappear. This might be the best scene of the entire movie and the most accurate to Jesse’s character.

Jesse is only $1,800 short and has to find a way to get it. He first calls his parents and pretends to ask them to pick him up somewhere, leaving the house empty for Jesse to rob. He doesn’t find money, but instead finds an old 22 caliber pistol.

Jesse then goes to the only other person who has money, Neil and Casey, who are in the middle of having a cocaine and hookers party. Jesse tries to appeal to Neil’s humility and simply asks for the money. Neil has a better idea, which I imagine is the result of cocaine and hookers. He wants to duel Jesse for the money. With assassin like precision, Jesse kills Neil. Casey then grabs for the gun and the two exchange bullets, Casey missing every shot and Jesse eventually hits him. Jesse blows the place up and drives away with the money.

The next scene is a flashback of Jesse and Walter White, played by Brian Cranston, as the two sit at a diner talking about life. A very great scene and feels perfectly written for Jesse and Walter. Then we get to the finale, Jesse wakes up in the back of a moving van driven by Ed and emerge in Alaska. Ed quizzes Jesse on his new identity. Jesse hands Ed a letter to send to Brock, who again I had to look up who that was. Jesse then drives off, quick flashback of his ex-girlfriend Jane and that’s the movie.

Was it good movie? Not at all. Like I said this more felt like filler scenes in the series rather than a standalone film. I felt like the writing of Jesse went in so many directions that it didn’t feel like the original character. Aside from a few short scenes, Jesse is unrecognizable in this movie. Jesse was never the “stand and fight type”. Instead of dueling Neil, it might’ve made more sense character wise for Jesse to rob the pimp outside the complex.

Jesse was never a big planner in the show. Sure, sometimes he did impress Walter with a great idea, but was never the brains of the group. At times Jesse didn’t even possess the best street smarts. The sheer fact that Walter kept Jesse around as long was because Walter didn’t have anyone else around. And Walter seemed to connect with Jesse more, maybe because Jesse was the cool one, someone that Walter wanted around. He liked teaching Jesse and watching him grow. Maybe Jesse was the son Walter never had, in the sense where he can have the father son relationship with Jesse and not spill over into his actual family life.

I wonder of this movie would be better if I didn’t watch the series before watching this? What do you guys think?

Simptastic Joe