the audience applauded

Fresh and Exciting

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I thought it was well acted with Dean Cain playing his character with flair and elan. I can only believe that the people who gave it bad ratings either were looking for a lot of blood and guts without much of a plot or didn't like a mellower type of western. Although I did think the end was anticlimactic and did reduce my rating level. Sure some of the results in the movie were very predictable but were still done well. This movie did show that turkeys are meant to be eaten and not let go (white turkeys are not wild birds but farm raised). The biggest visual flaw I saw was the 1866 Yellow boy rifle. The Civil War was still on so this rifle did not exist except as an idea.

You just know that when the 2 guys meet, despite the animosity between them, they shall ultimately become friends especially when there is a threat by Emperor Maximillian's army and other renegades towards them.A well dressed drifter roams into town and gets land thanks to a win in a card game. He is the gambler.The guy loves a widow, but her husband has been dead for three years now and our guy hesitates in proposing, instead offering all kinds of excuses not to wed her. After all, Jim, her deceased husband, was his friend. Apparently, the girl has been waiting 3 years for our guy to ask so we can imagine the marriage she had with Jim.In Mel Brooks' film of 1974, "Blazing Saddles," a line was stated that never in the history of motion pictures has the cavalry ever been too late. While this is true here, the ending is quite silly and if anything, detracts from the movie itself.

The star of the movie really is Dean Cain. Maybe it's because his character is the outsider(in more ways than one) and therefore we pay more attention. Maybe it's just because he looks like he's having a ball playing Shea McCall, a child who learned to shoot growing up in the carnival circuit and whose father used to shoot plates off his head. I think it's an equal mix character and actor: it's hard to not pay total attention to Dean/Shea when he comes on screen. Actually, all the actors involved looked like they were having fun with this movie. I liked that even the minor characters weren't treated as simple window dressing. They all had a voice, a POV, and we cared about them because they care about their boss, played by James Tupper, who takes an immediate dislike to Cain's character. It's a fun movie, nothing ground breaking or too original, and the ending is predictable. But it's the getting there that makes for two hours of escapist fun. I really liked the chemistry between Tupper and Cain, and wouldn't mind a sequel(or two) at all.

Dean Cain surprised me. The star of Lois & Clark is almost unrecognizable here, but that's fine as he fit right in with the proceedings. The comedy is subtle, but there's a lot of it! Alison Hossack is a new actress to me, and she nailed her role of the neighboring ranch owner who has a crush on the Gunslinger, played by James Tupper.The invading protagonists could have been handled a bit better, but I can somewhat overlook that because the story was not really about them. The budget was apparent in some of the explosions.The scenery was great, the sets and props excellent, and a pesky rain was noticed in about half of the picture. The star of this movie was the witty script and dialog between the stars!I was well entertained! 9 out of 10.