Calamity Jane

In 2024 I expected that they would be able to produce a movie far better than in 1953. It's far from that! Bad amaturish acting with an overexaggerated played accent. The sets and clothing are not authentic enough. Most scenes are predictable. The jail scene, the poker scene, the scene at the mine. With more creativity this could have been a better movie.

The good part? I have to think! Maybe it's the part with the undertaker. It comes pretty close to some exitement. But as said, I had to think about it.

I had to do my best to keep watching. All in all very a very dissapointing western for me.

...and settle in for a re-watch of Deadwood, the brilliant TV series that features far better acttors & depictions of Jane & Bill. This thing is a train wreck that dares to take these names in vain. Muddled and incoherent from the start, with ill-placed soundtrack music that just adds to the irritation.

Now, for the rest of the required word count - my favorite westerns, among which I count the above-mentioned TV series - The Unforgiven, The Good, The Bad & the Ugly, Hell Or High Water, The Long Riders, a whole bunch more Eastwood films, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Lone Star, McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Lonesome Dove TV series...

I was in the mood for a good western. Something new and different. My mistake turning this on. It's downright horrible.

First the good -- the scenery is beautiful. That's it.

The script is really dumb. Just doesn't make a shred of sense. But the worst part of all is that the acting is really really really bad. Like almost laughable.

I have no idea who the woman that plays Calamity is, but she cannot act herself out of a paper bag.

She spends her time on screen mugging for the camera and putting on an obviously phony accent that she can't keep straight.

I was bored out of my mind 8 minutes into this fiasco.

Overall, this film just "feels" sort of odd.... like it's unpolished. There are just minor nuances that work against any "suspension of disbelief". Things like someone speaking one sentence in *too* perfect English. I.e. ".. that is how things are meant to be" as opposed to "...that's how things're meant ta be". Or one person looks sparkling clean when everyone else looks dusty and worn. Or.. the long hair wigs on the male actors just look unrealistic (if not reused between actors - seriously looks like the same long hair wig on several different actors).

There's FAR too much attempt at some sort of emotional pull for Jane.. but there's ZERO character development for her. This is NOT a story about how Jane got her nickname. Not even close. It STARTS with Jane already having her nickname and apparently some sort of reputation. It's not even a story about Jane really.... it's a story that *happens* to have Jane, Buffalo Bill, etc. In it - that's all. There's no reason all the character names couldn't have been changed to completely unrecognizable names, the film would have been the same.

Honestly, I didn't care about any of the characters - but it was CLEAR that was the intent of some scenes. It was clearly striving to be some sort of "emotional western". But came across as just formulaic and cliché.

Overall, this film has an air of a "made for TV" film.. that same melodramatic acting and soundtrack.. and storyline. LITTERED with clichés in scenes, characters, settings, and dialog.

This film is not really horrible, but it is exceptionally unremarkable and forgettable.

Some foul language, western violence. (shooting, etc). No sex or nudity or adult content (might have been a kiss at most).

A nice mumbo jumbo of a "Western" , having unlikely and unrealistic characters, spearheaded by Calamity Jane, though ironically and convincingly played by the multifaceted actress that Emily Bett Rickards is. It is mindlessly enjoyable and believe me or not, would have made a nice 6 to 8 parts mini-series.

Hope Stephen Amell does more quality productions, series and movies alike, clean-shaves more and would make a nice operative. If Henry Cavill can do it, he sure as hell can too.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 4
• Production value/impact: 2
• Development: 6
• Realism: 2.5
• Entertainment: 4.5
• Acting/self: 5.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7
• VFX: 7.5
• Music/score/sound: 6
• Depth: 3
• Logic: 3
• Flow: 5.5
• Western: 4
• Ending: 2.5.