6 Guns

Not sure what makes this Western genre offering from The Asylum so surprisingly decent. My guess is pure mathematics. When it doesn't have to spend money on special effects from bargain-basement CGI house Tiny Juggernaut, The Asylum can devote those same dollars to scriptwriting, direction and location scenery.

This is essentially a mockbuster of the new "True Grit," with Barry Van Dyke unconvincing in the Jeff Bridges role and cutie pie nobody Sage Mears in the Hailee Steinfeld part, rewritten here as an alcoholic milf who hires Van Dyke to help her seek revenge against the bad guys who raped her and murdered her husband and children.

It's not his fault, but Barry looks so much like his father Dick, it's hard to take him seriously as a rough bounty hunter. You half expect him to burst into "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in every scene.

And because he must have some sort of contract that says he appears in every third Asylum movie, Greg Evigan shows up as an old, fat, useless sheriff who only serves to remind us baby boomers how old, fat and useless we've gotten since "My Two Dads" too.

It's true the weaponry here is anachronistic and the money shown in the poker game scene is too modern. And yeah, pretty much every cowboy in this movie rides his horse like it's the first time he's ever been on one. But really, even the most authentic of Westerns have always been revisionist fantasies. The Asylum isn't asking too much when requiring we take this one with an extra grain of salt.

Why? Because ultimately, it works. For some reason, "6 Guns" works as a whole to create a harmless cowboy flick that's better than you would expect from the king of direct-to-DVD cheese. After all, this is the company that gave us "Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus," so I think we need to count the few blessings The Asylum throws us.

Really. What did you expect for a buck at Redbox? OK. So maybe Sage Mears might have shown more emotion after losing a nail than she showed after her family was massacred before her very eyes. But aren't most westerns a bit comical looking? It was a bit refreshing to watch a flick with no vampires or thumbscrews. The acting? It was decent. The story. Sure. Totally unoriginal. But Barry van Dyke pulled off the role of the reclusive moody aging gunslinger and the baddies were downright unlikeable. Please. Those who play the "worst movie ever" card too frequently will find the rest of us tuning you out. Lighten up and enjoy a simple story cheaply made.

The Asylum have made the odd halfway decent movie, though their best don't rise beyond that. Most of their resume is either very bad or bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. Luckily for 6 Guns it is one of their more tolerable outings. It is less than perfect though. There are stretches throughout the movie where it is too slowly paced, and unfortunately in those moments there is not much happening to disguise that problem. When the action it was good and brutal, there was just too little of it and when it wasn't there that was when the film started to drag. Sage Mears has a sort of sweet and sour role that requires many emotions, but while she is beautiful she doesn't convince as a vengeful woman, she is rather emotionless with no fire behind the eyes and even when she is raped people who have lost any kind of sporting round have shown much more emotion. It is not without its anachronisms(the use of the term crack-pot really jarred with the period) and outside of the heroes and villains the characters are one-dimensional with not that much development to them.

On the plus side, 6 Guns is one of The Asylum's better looking movies, the photography is not choppy and the sets look great with a much cleaner look. The soundtrack I really liked too, the criticisms that it is too modern is valid but whether it's memorable and gives the sense of adventure and danger matters even more, the score for 6 Guns does fit those qualities. The script is certainly tighter and less cheesy than usual and it also deserves credit for sticking true to the western theme. It isn't best screenplay quality but for The Asylum it is a step up. The story is not particularly original, but there is some strong tension, and the first 20 minutes is harrowing, unnerving and actually very difficult to look away. Aside from Mears, the acting is quite good. Barry Van Dyke does grizzled and stoic quite well, Geoff Meed is ruthlessly snarky and menacing and Greg Evigan plays admirable and stern endearingly. Even Shane Van Dyke is tolerable, and I don't rate him highly as an actor at all, and directing-wise this is far more assured and competent than Titanic II and Paranormal Entity. All in all, not that bad, for The Asylum it is one of their better efforts definitely. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Sage Mears is a very attractive actress. One would think she might get better roles. She is really the only one worth mention in this straight- to-video western. With the exception of 3:10 to Yuma, I didn't even know anyone way still making westerns, but here we are.

There isn't a lot of great acting here, but how many westerns feature acting giants. It's the action you come for. There isn't a whole lot of that, either.

It's a revenge movie. The bad guy (Geoff Meed) kills her husband (Brian Wimmer) and two sons and his gang rapes her. She becomes the town drunk until the bounty hunter (Barry Van Dyke) arrives in town.

What happens next is not entirely believable, but it makes for a fairly good story. I can't say as much for the very end. That goes off into fantasy land.

I watch a lot of movies and have probably seen all modern westerns. I have also been a homeless young person and was raised on the streets so I know what is going on out there. I really bought into this one. The characters were believable. Sure, they don't show the whole mourning process of the woman who lost her family. No movie does. I wouldn't change a word of this movie and I would recommend it to any western buff. Especially if you look for "real" in a movie. The actors were brilliantly cast. The bad guys really fit the part, with different levels of sensitivity and hardness. The director has a great vision. I'd like to see other things this writer director and actors have done. Western lovers, watch this movie.