The Old Way

This entire production felt like a high-school drama class level, budget and all. Cage basically is sleepwalking his paycheck, but little Ryan Kiera Armstrong steals the spotlight with her charisma and flair for acting. The writing was your typical seen-it-before predictable and cliched revenge Western offering up nothing new for this genre, that felt quickly and lazily written. Some of the dialogue was cheesy to the point of cringe. The directing was weak and lacked any urgency in almost every scene. Even the sets and settings felt cheap and unconvincing, and lacked any authentic Western feel. A little bit of dust and tumbleweed blowing through town would've gone a long way getting to that Western feel. Even the normally comfortable 95 min runtime felt longer with poor pacing and the underwhelming narrative. It's a generous 5/10 from me, all for the young Armstrong's impressive performance.

I was going to review this film positively, and say " Cage occasionally makes a decent film, and this is one of those times."...but then I read the other reviews!

Wow, was I surprised.

I hesitated just for a moment, and decided to soldier on with my own opinion.

I generally agree with most of the reviewers around here, but in this case, I have to go against the largely negative opinion of this film.

No, its not Eastwood's Unforgiven, or any of the other great Westerns.

But, its got its moments, I liked the story flow, and Cage didn't "over-Cage".

I think, if you're into Westerns, its definitely worth a look.

If you like Nick Cage, its worth a look.

Maybe don't look for movie magic...each cage film needs to be judged on its own merits and not against other Cage films (good or bad).

I went to see this move because it had a 7.0 at the time. I don't know what you people are thinking. I even went on half-off night and still regret it. The little girl is the best actor out of the entire cast by far. Even Cage comes up short. For hardened criminals in the cowboy days, the bad guys look like frat boys dressed up for Halloween. Or, use an excellent face moisturizer from the mercantile. And any scene with them feels like you are watching a middle school theater performance. There are so many corny punch lines as well. From the first 5 minutes it was cringe and never got better. The story line was rushed and seemed like key scenes were cut. I hate to be negative but it's a bust. Movies such as True Grit and Open Range are on a far different level of plot, authenticity, and acting. This doesn't come close and felt like another low budget Netflix film where everyone did the absolute minimum. If you think this is going to be a film about raw vengeance like the trailer suggests, it isn't. I could go on but I have made my point.

Well I would have to say that I did find this movie entertaining. Nicholas Cage was fun to watch, I think he did a good job playing the character that was called for, but the real revelation of the film was Ryan Keira Armstrong. I'd never seen her before and she was absolutely astonishing, as his daughter. She was a really fun character to watch and she really played it the character to the hilt. Gritty, self assured and believable. So many comic book characters these days, that just feel like they're written from cardboard, and it is so refreshing to see a character truly written well. She was truly convincing, and as an actress, she really has a future.

Finally the world is treated to a Nicolas Cage western. It is full of clichés and follows the typical western tropes yet is always engaging.

This may be billed as Nic Cage's first western however Ryan Kiera Armstrong runs off with the full movie. She is exceptional as a Mattie Ross type character who seeks revenge for a loved one. Her chemistry with Cage saves the movie from mediocrity.

There are a few good supporting characters with Noah Le Gros making a decent enough villian (despite not convincing entirely) and Clint Howard playing Eustice, a prophet of doom character, straight out of The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.

You watch The Old Way and go 'well that's from that movie and from that western' but The Old Way has enough charm (especially in Armstrong) to get it over the line.