BEFORE: We're more than halfway through August, and I still have no idea if movie theaters are going to open up according to the latest plan, which would put new movie releases out in late August and early September. The IMDB is still saying that "The New Mutants" is going to be in theaters on August 28, but will it? And even if if is, is anybody going to want to go? This movie was part of my plans, once upon a time, but I've had to keep moving forward, and in doing so, it might be too late for me to watch "The New Mutants" now, even if it gets released on time. I've still got an option to maybe see "Bill & Ted Face the Music", but the same questions apply. Will it happen, and if it does, do I want to go? Or will both movies get postponed yet again?
I've sort of become used to my chain without these movies, and I've been putting all my chips on "Black Widow" in November. If that movie gets released, I'm definitely going, because of all my three plans to get me to the end of the year, the one I like best is the one with "Black Widow" in it, and that then gets me to two Christmas movies, including the one I could have included last year, if only I'd had one more slot. But this means that I won't go into a movie theater until November, and that might be too long. So, which appeals to me more, "Bill & Ted Face the Music", or "Klaus"? That's a tough call. I've got about 10 more days to make a decision on this.
One thing that's off the table now is New York Comic-Con, the event organizers finally pulled the plug on the event, though they'll be running a virtual version, like the San Diego Con did. Well, at least I'll have my whole October free now, I can watch as many horror movies as I need to, or I can space them out as I see fit since I'm a little bit shy of 30 films in that part of the chain.
In the meantime, Kathy Baker carries over from "13 Going on 30".
THE PLOT: A Western story about loyalty, friendship and the relentless pursuit of justice.
AFTER: Eh, I'm not really feeling this one today, maybe I've just seen too many Westerns over the last 12 years, and they're essentially all the same. Guns, posses, ranchers and rustlers, plus corrupt politicians scheming over where the railroad's going to go. Yawn, there really doesn't seem to be much new here - or is there?
A couple online reviews pointed out that the hero here isn't the kind you'd see in a typical Western, with the white hat and the rugged jawline and the inability to do wrong. Lefty Brown's more of a screw-up, and he's sort of been riding the coattails of his "partner", Edward Johnson, who's just been elected as the new Senator from Montana, and is planning to go to Washington DC with his wife. He's asked Lefty to look after his ranch while he's serving in the Senate, Lefty's reluctantly agreed to do so, but Mrs. Johnson doesn't think this is a hot idea.
But then Edward and Lefty ride out to check out some horse thieves who've made off with three colts, and well, looks like Montana's gonna need a new Senator. Lefty feels responsible and insists on heading back out to deal with the horse thieves/killers himself, then Marshall Tom Harrah arrives on the scene, and rides out himself, figuring that Lefty's either lost in the desert or in need of some kind of rescue at that point. Lefty, meanwhile, has picked up a young sidekick named Jeremiah, and when Harrah arrives on the scene, Jeremiah recognizes him from his pulp Western novels, the kind that glorify the heroes of the Wild West, only Lefty's not mentioned in any of them.
Together they manage to catch one of the killers, and try to figure out who paid them to take out Ed Johnson. Well, there really aren't that many characters here, so it's probably a very short list. Big surprise, it has a lot to do with the fact that Ed didn't support the plan to bring the railroad to Bannack, which is now on its way to becoming a ghost town. Thankfully this is still the time and place where nearly everything can be solved by either an unfair gunfight or a gold old-fashioned hanging. Why wait for an election?
I'd never even heard of this film until I spotted it on Netflix, and I'm thinking there's a good reason for that, except for Lefty's atypical underdog nature, there's not much here to distinguish this from every other damn Western. Bill Pullman does his best to make this Gabby Hayes-like character the most important part of the story, but perhaps they were right to exclude him from the dime novels in the first place.
Also starring Bill Pullman (last seen in "Battle of the Sexes"), Jim Caviezel (last seen in "The Passion of the Christ"), Joe Anderson (last seen in "Love Happens"), Tommy Flanagan (last seen in "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball"), Peter Fonda (last seen in "David Crosby: Remember My Name"), Michael Spears, Diego Josef, Joseph Lee Anderson (last seen in "The D Train"), Lewis Pullman (last seen in "Bad Times at the El Royale"), Adam O'Byrne, Tyson Gerhardt, Stephen Alan Seder, Dillinger Steele, Seth Carlin, Emily Jones.
RATING: 5 out of 10 hoof prints
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