“El Camino- A Breaking Bad Movie” From Creator Vince Gilligan*

The difference here was we knew exactly what Jesse was doing and why. Most of those BCS scenes start us off with no clue at all as to what he's doing or what's going on - that's what makes them way more interesting and fun.

 

"Interesting" and "fun" are not words I'd use to describe BCS.

 

I kept thinking Chuck from BCS.

 

This was a pale shadow of the greatness that was Breaking Bad. It had none of the charm, intense emotion, mystery, camera work, music, editing, writing, drama. In short, it was a dud.

 

I wouldn't call it bad. I was too dull and uninspired to leave any kind of an impression. In a few months, I will remember nothing about it. As someone stated above, it wasn't even the same character. It's as if he forgot how to play Jesse.

 

I guess the money Badger and Pete give to Jesse in the driveway must be the same money they got from Walt the day before for flashing the laser pointers at the Schwartzes, right? Did they happen to ask Jesse about Walt's fate?

 

I was excited about El Camino, and it was fun to be back in the BB universe for a while, but if the question before watching it was 'do I really need to know what happens to Jesse after his escape?' then the answer in the end was 'no'.

I'd hoped that Vince Gilligan might have a few surprises up his sleeve but really the most surprising element in the movie was seeing Skinny Pete take his hat off. Pretty sure we've never seen that before. I'd never imagined he was a fair-haired guy anyway (never seen the actor outside of BB.) That's all!

 

No

 

They had already heard all about it on the TV News the night before.

 

I also thought there was too much Todd but I wondered if his weight gain and general pastiness had been scripted in to portray him as that much more of a loser, whose bad choices and mental illness were causing him to go downhill fast.

 

ummm . . . so pastiness and weight gain = mentally ill loser?

 

Saw it last night - thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall, wasn’t blown away but I wasn’t expecting to be. I had very little expectations, actually and read nothing about it prior to watching.

Although I do understand the criticism that the film was pointless in the sense that it didn’t add anything revelatory nor improve on the series and I wouldn’t argue that. But that didn’t bother me.

It felt like an epilogue and a fitting one.

Jesse, great character (and Paul great actor) that he is, was still 2nd to Walt so I wasn’t expecting any huge development of Jesse’s character - I’m more relieved it starts right where the series ended in the sense that I thought those next couple days play out reasonably in sync to what would’ve happened and how Jesse would’ve reacted.

I loved that the humor and added nuance and warmth to his video game loving drug buddies. That was a nice touch.

I noticed but was not overly bothered with Todd’s weight gain. Yes, the scenes with him were long but god, they were creepy and they served to underscore the trauma that Jesse went through. For that reason alone, the length of the Todd scenes are justified.

Diner scene with Walt was fantastic. Bittersweet.

I did like the shootout scene and found it believable and I would argue that it did show the good in Jesse’s character. Yes, he did some terrible things and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who insisted prison is where he belongs but.... the scene reveals what I think it quite obvious about Jesse: he is not a killer by nature or even a bad person - he is looking to extricate himself from a terrible situation and he enters the Kandy welding office hooping to avoid violence.

I found his having the gun secretly in his pocket and blasting away to believable in the sense of the trauma he has been through - he is hoping to not have to kill anyone but if these minor jerkoff nuisances force his hand, well, he’s been though. So. Much that killing them is just something he would need to do. Or they could’ve given him the measly $1800 he asked for and not a shot would’ve been fired.

I thought the actor who played Kandy was wonderful.

A fitting epilogue, imo.

 

agree on pale shadow......it did have flashes though. but it gelt like vince had no interest in making this and maybe got tired of people asking for a followup and took the check.....

yeah. but like a weak BB episode (or lackluster BCS) I still enjoyed it.....

 

I’m not surprised in a way that El Camino upset certain fans of the show. Though on the other hand, I personally think it’s great, and I’m not sure what people were really expecting with it.

 

Yo, we seen the whole thing on the news, yo.

Todd was not nearly this fat in the final episode of Breaking Bad, when Jesse got to strangle him with that big metal chain. Why, it's as if the actor put on 50 pounds in the last six years...

 

I met Mr. Cranston last year at a Ford Motor Co. charity event here in Puerto Rico (just a handshake). Mr. Cranston was/is? a spokesman for Ford. Those of us who were invited and knew that he was going to be there were asked to keep it to ourselves, very hush hush. Some in the press who covered the event obviously knew beforehand but I don't think his presence was advertised beforehand. In the event he was very charming and I believe some of the donations were his own.

Anyway, I have no way of knowing if this movie had been finished or not by then, but we were also asked by the PR people to not ask him BB questions. Anyway I did not get to talk to him but I did hear him talk BB with people at the event. I am sure he had down a pat answer to the "will you ever?" question.

 

That Fargo butcher meat sure puts the pounds on.

 

I ate lunch at the The Owl Cafe in Albuquerque mere hours before watching El Camino.

 

i am pretty sure the weight gain was part of his role on Fargo. i seem to remember an interview where that was discussed. had not lost it before starting El Camino filming so VG worked with it in the story.

 

I am getting really tired of VG trying to cash in on the success of BB and going back to embellish things that happened in the past. To me, this is the lowest form of entertainment and not at all inspired. He's capable of setting up great situations and stories, but Camino was devoid of those. There was no story at all in Camino worth telling. Some of the cinematography was ok, but it was a snoozefest. When we last saw Jesse, he was driving away from a life of enslavement, crime and bad choices to a more optimistic future where he could start his life over again. And that is exactly how Camino ended. It was just a big nothingburger for BB to binge on, like the recent seasons of BCS. That show started out so strong with the relationship between Jimmy and Chuck a genuinely compelling and inspired framework to build a story on. How sad to see it devolve into "remember when" embellishment of BB.

 

It was a one time movie. VG said he will do no more. Plenty of BB fans loved it and were appreciative of a follow up. But it was rather lame, and VG said he will do no more, so he gets it.

 

Indeed, it was a BB fan who told me how great it was. This got my expectations up, and then I felt thoroughly let down.

 

Maybe one of the reasons I liked it so much is because I wasnt expecting much. Call me nostalgic. It was fun to revisit the past.

 

If nothing else, El Camino did give us this, so it's worth it:

 

Yeah, while Jessie was shoved in the trunk with a corpse. The entire flashback sequence with Jessie the slave was painful and unpleasant to watch despite this Gilligan selection where he may as well put himself on the screen saying, "listen everybody, I can choose the right music at the right time!" The production values were there. It was just missing a compelling story to justify its existence.