Hope Ranch

Hope Ranch has the look and feel of an unsold TV pilot and if that is the case it's a pity some network didn't pick it up. It seems like a fine modern western, an up to date Boystown with a cowboy setting.

Bruce Boxleitner, former marine and former Dallas cop, wants to start a program for troubled male youth on the edge of deciding whether it is a criminal lifestyle they will pursue or not. He asks for and gets three hard cases from juvenile detention, Richard Lee Jackson, J.D. Pardo, and Brian Gross to come and live with him and his two hands Barry Corbin, and Lorenzo Lamas. The court also imposes a female social worker in Laura Johnson and her child Isabelle Howell. Johnson both cooks and evaluates.

Gross is the toughest case, he's got a bad brother role model in Brad Hawkins who has some nasty drug dealers after him for monies owed. Of course in the end it all works out.

Hope Ranch has some nice performances in the ensemble cast with Lamas, Gross, and Hawkins sticking out. Good family film.