Sometimes when you're stuck in a hotel room, on a rainy day, your movie viewing options are severely limited. You have to take what you can and so it was that I took in "Last of the Dogmen" more than a quarter century after its release.
It quickly becomes clear that this isn't some forgotten classic but it's not a straight to cable clunker either. Instead it's a workmanlike affair that combines the lone bounty hunter with something of a paean to a lost time when real Native American tribes roamed the western states. The latter angle emerges when we discover that somehow actual Indians are still living in the mountains, apart from the modern era, and circumstances are conspiring to expose their existence.
What's particularly nice about the film is that it doesn't stray much from this core story. There isn't some epic romance, apart from with Nature, but there could be. Equally the central protagonist doesn't make any grand speeches, and he's neither good nor bad, but his actions speak for him. The outside world also isn't portrayed as particularly malevolent but more somewhat less than careful.
This is all great but somehow the arrival of the lost tribe just isn't as awesome as you would expect. They are suspicious of course but they don't feel especially alien and like refugees from the past. Instead they become comfortable with the strangers very quickly and their existence causes barely a ripple. It's a shame because the moment of contact could have been delivered with real impact.
So there's plenty to like with "Last of the Dogmen" and it's definitely worth your time should you stumble across it. But is it worth making a special effort to enjoy? Probably not unless you really fancy a story that doesn't try to be all things to everyone. It sticks to the script and there's nothing wrong with that.
