I have seen TV commercials with better actors! This is another movie I couldn't sit through. Between the paper thin actors and their badly timed attempts at dialogue, and scenes like Tom Berenger sitting at a judge's bench - obviously without a live audience, they show the cheapness of this film and guarantees that it definitely didn't go over-budget (undoubtedly a tiny one). We all get old, but Eric Roberts' choppers sound like they just came out of a glass, and Tom Berenger looks like he's ready to explode. The score was also cheap, and reminded me of 1970s TV. The director chose some shots that make me think he has about as much experience at this as a teenager directing an 8mm school project. Why either Tom Berenger OR Eric Roberts would ever choose to be in something this lame is beyond me. My theory is they owed one of their kids a favor and pulled a Ricky Ricardo. I give what I saw 2 stars, and that's being generous.
8 Reviews
Difficult to watch this movie
young-christopher-mark27 July 2014
I will say just a few things: 1) I would watch it again ... as part of an endurance challenge ... maybe.
2) I would suggest that anyone watching this film go in with the understanding that you will stay sane by pretending this is a western comedy.
3) My wife would not, rather could not endure the film and my continuing to watch it and laugh out loud woke her up multiple times.
4) Having to expend the energy to drive this movie back to the Redbox was excruciatingly difficult.
If you are looking for something to make fun of for an evening, or a lesson in the legal foundation of the revenge taken by Doc Holliday, I can recommend this movie. I could also recommend Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II for the first point, but unfortunately not for the second.
2) I would suggest that anyone watching this film go in with the understanding that you will stay sane by pretending this is a western comedy.
3) My wife would not, rather could not endure the film and my continuing to watch it and laugh out loud woke her up multiple times.
4) Having to expend the energy to drive this movie back to the Redbox was excruciatingly difficult.
If you are looking for something to make fun of for an evening, or a lesson in the legal foundation of the revenge taken by Doc Holliday, I can recommend this movie. I could also recommend Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II for the first point, but unfortunately not for the second.
Nothing much there...
info-224-60991718 June 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Why did Tom Berenger lend himself to this obvious low budget film? One can only guess. Early indicators for me were the cheap effects that were meant to set the historic context, but blurred faces and two bit actors shooting at each other for minutes in brown-tone? Tom appears first as if in a documentary talking with a badly done - ghost like - cut out effect that sets him against a 'western' landscape, introducing more of the context - later on the same effect is used in a court scene, making him look even more like a ghost. These wishful attempts to give the story substance fail and only amplify the minimal acting and storyline. 2 points for the effort.
Just Plain Bad
benjaminstoker20 July 2014
My wife picked this up at a redbox with a free code, and it wasn't worth the money. The writing was just atrocious, they didn't even try to get the dialogue to sound like it was anywhere near the 1880s. The acting was so bad I actually joked to my wife that it was the acting of a porn without the benefits, and come to think of it, the writing fits this description as well. As a whole, this movie looked like it was put together by a seventh grader during his free time. Not sure what they were thinking putting this out, but I'm sure the budget was so low that they'll end up making money on this thing even if they only sell 10 copies of it. Don't waste your time, it was so bad I didn't even get 10 minutes into it before we returned it.
As awful as the other reviewers say
moneyko3 September 2014
The sepia-toned intro didn't bother me so much, I guess, but the gunfight did drag on. I guess that was supposed to be the OK Corral shootout?
Why dwell on such little points? Because they're portents of doom.
I got about 10-15 minutes into the film before giving up. It attempts to set the plot through dialogue that's badly written and has the characters carefully explaining the back story to each other. Ashley whoosis (Elizabeth) has a heart-sinking line early on, when she is asked if "Jack made it up from Texas"...she replies, in her best Valley Girl imitation, "He did, actually." Yessir, it's 1882.
Then there's Joseph, who declares in a conversation with Elizabeth that he "doesn't believe in firearms." But when we see a full-length shot of him in the kitchen a moment later in movie time, he's wearing a revolver on his hip. And another few minutes later, after the trio finds a wounded Indian, Joseph the humanitarian is arguing that they should leave him to die.
Back in the '40s, James Thurber wrote a short story satirizing the Erskine Caldwell/Tennessee Williams literary style and themes. It consists of 4-5 pages of dialogue (in dialect) among a Southern cracker family; suddenly Thurber breaks it off and ends the story by saying, "If you continue writing for a few more pages, you have a screenplay." Well, it doesn't always work. Continue this script and you still don't have a watchable "B" Western.
Why dwell on such little points? Because they're portents of doom.
I got about 10-15 minutes into the film before giving up. It attempts to set the plot through dialogue that's badly written and has the characters carefully explaining the back story to each other. Ashley whoosis (Elizabeth) has a heart-sinking line early on, when she is asked if "Jack made it up from Texas"...she replies, in her best Valley Girl imitation, "He did, actually." Yessir, it's 1882.
Then there's Joseph, who declares in a conversation with Elizabeth that he "doesn't believe in firearms." But when we see a full-length shot of him in the kitchen a moment later in movie time, he's wearing a revolver on his hip. And another few minutes later, after the trio finds a wounded Indian, Joseph the humanitarian is arguing that they should leave him to die.
Back in the '40s, James Thurber wrote a short story satirizing the Erskine Caldwell/Tennessee Williams literary style and themes. It consists of 4-5 pages of dialogue (in dialect) among a Southern cracker family; suddenly Thurber breaks it off and ends the story by saying, "If you continue writing for a few more pages, you have a screenplay." Well, it doesn't always work. Continue this script and you still don't have a watchable "B" Western.
This is nothing but a bad western that was really a struggle to get through it was really hard to watch & not laugh at
cosmo_tiger7 September 2014
"A judge can only go by the facts in hand and then he must use his best judgment." In 1882 after the shootout at the OK Corral the Clanton gang was not happy with the Earp's or Doc Holliday. Soon after the gunfight Morgan Earp was shot and killed but because of lack of witnesses the killer was never convicted and is free. Not a group to rest Wyatt Earp and his friend Doc Holliday have been canvasing the Tuscon area looking for the killer. Joseph (Voitila) and Elizabeth (Hayes) Cooley are staying at a logging camp when a wounded person shows up at their door. They attempt to help him but when Doc Holliday shows up things begin to change and no one knows who is in the right. There really isn't too much to say about this movie. This is yet another nearly unwatchable cheesy western with awful acting. The main star in this is Tom Berenger. He plays a judge that really has nothing to with the story other then to explain what is going on in a voice over. It may be because I think Tombstone is one of the best movies of all time and it's hard not to compare anybody's portrayal of Doc Holliday to Val Kilmer but this guy was bad. He was only in it for a few minutes though so that helped. This is nothing but a bad western that was really a struggle to get through. Overall, a movie that was really hard to watch and not laugh at. I give this a C-.
A JUDGE MUST USE HIS BEST JUDGEMENT
nogodnomasters4 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This film is a docudrama about the events that followed the shootout at the OK Corral. It centers exclusively around the Stilwell (sic) family. Doc Holiday (William McNamara) appears 40 minutes into the film. Bart Voitila plays Joseph Cooley the husband of Elizabeth Stilwell (Ashley Hayes) and is portrayed as a modern gun hating liberal. Eric Roberts does his usual beginning and end cameo.
The film is almost all drama, with very little action. There is one killing that we see. Tom Berenger as Judge Wells provides for narration throughout.
This film is brought to by the same group that gave us "Bonnie and Clyde Justified." Ashley Hayes played Bonnie in that and used the same accent that made me cringe. Depending on how you felt about that film should determine how you view this one.
Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.
The film is almost all drama, with very little action. There is one killing that we see. Tom Berenger as Judge Wells provides for narration throughout.
This film is brought to by the same group that gave us "Bonnie and Clyde Justified." Ashley Hayes played Bonnie in that and used the same accent that made me cringe. Depending on how you felt about that film should determine how you view this one.
Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.
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