The Mule (2018) review

War-vet and horticulturalist Earl (Eastwood, back on screen) - who's better with plants than people (he's been an absentee father ... and grandfather) - chances into a role as a drug runner for the Sinaloa cartel (here, run by Andy Garcia) ... but the DEA (Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña, Laurence Fishburne) are after him.  One can easily tell what's going to happen from the beginning - everything is telegraphed - and Eastwood the filmmaker is leisurely with his approach - it's about a 90-year-old man, after all, who thinks nothing of stopping a run to get sandwiches or help people with car trouble.  It could be viewed as a (lesser) companion piece to Gran Torino - it even has some throwaway scenes with lesbian bikers and an African American family (Earl's crude and not "politically correct," but it's not from a place of hate) - and there's something sweet and endearing about it (the scene where Earl and his dying ex-wife 'make up' is very good).  Important take-away: cops can be bought off with popcorn (if you're elderly and Caucasian).