Murder at Yellowstone City

A former slave arrives in Yellowstone City, Montana, a desolate former boomtown now on the decline, looking for a place to call home. On that same day, a local prospector discovers gold - and is murdered.

It's not a bad story, and not a bad TV movie. But it's not a great film and won't be one you'd watch twice. The acting is not what you'd expect off a good quality cast, but it befits a low grade TV movie. There's lot's of gunfights, sadly badly orchestrated and no continuity in them. The pace is good, which is a godsend because the film is too long by 30 minutes. There's lots of sets which all look brand new, but the church is almost laughable with it's black cardboard windows, and the costumes look as if they've just been made, with no wear at all. There's some great goofs, one being the pistol that ex gunfighter Thaddius Murphy has, which is put into it's holster the wrong way round! Glamour is provided by the lovely Anna Camp, and DEI casting courtesy of a gay couple. All in all it's not awful, if you have nothing else at all to watch then this will do to fill in a gap. But don't sit down to purposefully watch it or you will be saddened. I gave it a 4 because it wasn't bottom of the barrel, but it wasn't anywhere near the top either.

Wanted to give it 7 stars, would give it 6 1/2 if possible..

Positives- actors, a couple creative scenes I hadn't seen before in a Western, cinematography not bad at all, acting decent, plot line acceptable and actually analogous to the world at large, which I'm not sure was intentional, but works from my perspective..

Negatives- everything looks new, like they just made it or polished it up.. Kinda weak on I presume the set masters part.. I don't think it's giving anything away to toss in the typical scenario of people getting shot several times, then still functioning.. Of course bullets rarely run out and Hollywood does what it does and way overdoes the booms and bangs.. They had an ok idea for the script, but I suspect in order to get the picture made the studio or some idiot producer decided they needed more bang for the buck.. It's too bad as if they had let it alone (and gave it a better title) this could have been very good.. As is, I found it entertaining enough.. No worse than dozens of old B rated Westerns from years gone by.. If they'd have fixed the 3 main problems I mentioned (and the stupid title) it could have been a contender.. I give it bonus points for the deeper world view and I hope people get some value from that as not many movies can offer that these days.. Certainly better than a lot of the garbage I've seen over recent years..! 🤔

Despite the famous cast of actors in this film, a bore fest.

A slow paced murder mysteries where little happens. I guessed who did it very early on which was a reflection of the poor direction and script.

Made for tv styling. Overacting left, right and centre.

Bad script, terrible acting.

This isn't a western but a fantasy and a very poor one.

I could go on but you get the picture......its terrible.

This movie could have been a real murder mystery movie..instead a bunch of people just died for nothing...don't waste your time with this.... I can't believe I wasted 2 hours on this.

Actors were not bad but awful story and script or poor direction or I'm walking too ahead of time. People need to experience life and study filmmaking before trying their hand on it.