The Shooter

Getting away from action movies for awhile, Michael Dudikoff does a western for a change, and the results are one of his best movies. This time around, he plays a mysterious drifter (what else?) who gets more than he bargained for when he comes to the rescue of a woman in the desert and returns her to town. County singer Randy Travis is good as one of the bad guys, and Valerie Wildman does a nice job as the girl. Veteran character actor William Smith is also (as always) a standout, with that gravely voice that just makes him perfect casting for the bad guy. Also nice is seeing Dudikoff play a vulnerable character, one who can't rely on fancy fighting skills to stay alive. One scene that helps to support the vulnerability of his character is when he's overcome by thugs and beaten to a bloody pulp and left for death. Afterwards, he must recover with the help of Wildman, and when he's well enough, he comes back gunning for revenge. Though it sometimes has the look of a film that was made by a bunch of friends wearing costumes gathered from some second-rate clothing stores, it works for what it is. Dudikoff isn't going to replace Clint Eastwood as the next western megastar, but he's good in the film and gets to show off a different side with his character. Worth a rental for those looking for a decent 90 minutes on a dull night.

This film begins with a cowboy by the name of "Michael Atherton" (Michael Dudikoff) riding alone in the wilderness when he hears a strange noise in the distance. Deciding to check it out he witnesses a young woman being tied up and whipped by four men. A gunfight subsequently ensues which results in him killing all of the men and rescuing the woman. It is then learned that the woman is a prostitute by the name of "Wendy" (Valerie Wildman) who works in a town nearby and one of the men Michael had just shot and killed was the son of a powerful rancher named "Jerry Kranz" (William Smith) who now swears to get his revenge upon Michael--along with anybody who helps him out. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay Western which had an interesting plot but lacked any sense of reality. Likewise, the acting--although adequate--wasn't especially convincing and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

Dudikoff stars as Michael Atherton a gunfighter and ex-union soldier, after stumbling across a woman being beaten by some no-good scum, Atherton naturally steps in and saves the girl(Valarie Wildman) and in the process finds himself targeted for vengeance by the family of one of the guys he killed and it's not long before Atherton is caught, beaten and almost killed, only to be saved by Wendy the girl he saved before, Atherton takes aim at taking down the family and does, however the sheriff has a vendetta, one that goes all the way back to the war in this far-better-than-you-would-expect direct to video western which features a decent story and Dudikoff in good form. This, The Silencer, Soldier Boyz and Virtual Assassin are the only watcahble movies from Dudikoff in the 90's. However where as Dudikoff is well suited to the role of a western, it's Randy Travis who ends up making the most impression and in turn steals the movie.

3/5 Matt Bronson

Action, horror, sci-fi, exploitation director Fred Olen Ray shows he has some talent as a director. Character actor William Smith is one of the best tough/bad guys in the industry. He treats the viewer with the best acting performance of his career. As for Randy Travis he gives his best Lee Van Cleef impression. He's not bad in the film. Smith and Travis make the movie. As for the rest of the cast none of them really stand out. Ray did a great job directing this flick, Smith and Travis were good, I'd give this B western on a scale of one to ten(ten being the best) a seven.

I'm surprised about the many female voters who even give this film better marks. My thought about this film was that the target audience is adult and male. Whipped and tortured women, merciless revenge and a high body count are typical ingredients, introduced into film history by the spaghetti subgenre. The opening and the hand-smashing are DJANGO rip-offs. THE SHOOTER however lacks the style of e.g. DJANGO. Score, acting and cinematography are mediocre at best but if you look for the above mentioned ingredients you are in the right place here. And the actors don't have an Italian accent.

4 / 10.