Dead Man's Hand

AKA a comic book. No surprise there. I mean, this one will certainly not tax the intellect any more than your average Archie & Jughead. But then it's a Western, which even the best of them are most often sparsely plotted and can generally be summed up in no more than just a few sentences. High Noon for instance, and one of the uncontested best of them can be adequately described in two. This film at least has that in common, but it is however, no High Noon. But still, I think if you like the genre, entertaining enough, filling the requirement of lots of action, a lot of outdoor photography, and with the merit of one bit of originality I've never seen before in any film outside Science Fiction (The Alligator People is the only one that comes immediately to mind) that seen in a Western defies the medical science not only of the period plus this one, but anything likely to be accomplished this side of a Star Trek future.

How much we wanted this western to live up to it's 7.9 Rating. Terrible, excessive, painfully poor acting by some of the main characters, barely believable story. Honestly, I wasn't planning to write a review as I am usually far too lazy but, on impulse, I chose to lookup True Grit - suspecting that even that classic would be ranked at lower than 7.9. And so it was. True Grit is rated at 7.4 as of this writing. Spurred by this travesty, here I am to say my piece. We looked forward to seeing Cole Hauser in a new movie. Although he wasn't given much to do, he was believable and gave a credible performance. Steven Dorff didn't have the same presence as he did in Old Hernry, hisThe roles of two of the stars. The actors playing Reno and Vegas just weren't good. Perhaps it was the material they were given to work with. The writing wasn't a highlight. Lots of shooting, blood spatters, fingers being chopped off, etc. If these things are your bag, however, give this clunker a try.

If your sick on the couch , looking for something to pass the time, skip this, unless you're going to take a nap soon It's that bad. I re-rounded a couple of times thinking I missed something because I couldn't possibly be seeing what I was seeing .

I tried selling it to my husband "it can't be that bad because it has several of the Yellowstone cast members in it." Maybe it was co-written by Taylor Sheridan I said. :-) Nope. No such luck I sure hope they paid Cole enough money to make it worth his while.

The soundtrack alone will make you want to turn the volume down. It is annoying as it gets.

I saw the preview somewhere online and was kinda excited to see it. Nope. I like Stephen Dorff and Cole Hauser. Felon is an underrated movie. I feel like Mr Dorff owed a favor to Val Kilmer and did a movie with his son Jack. Not sure if they were trying to make it look old but it looked like something from the early 90s. The acting was really bad and cheesy. The slow motion effects were in needed. Boring plot. Oh yeah did I mention the acting was really bad. Corin Nemec of Parker Lewis fame was a producer. Pretty sure he did it so he could be in the background making dumb faces the whole movie. Again bad bad acting. First time in my life I've left a review. That's how much I'm trying to save someone from watching this.

Not even five minutes into this movie I wanted to turn it off, but I stuck it out a full half hour before eventually giving up on this unwatchable western. From the soundtrack to the unbelievable acting I wasn't drawn in by any aspect of this movie.

None of the characters make an attempt to even sound period appropriate. Dialogue is flat and uninteresting. Despite having some of the Yellowstone actors on set, even they couldn't make this movie bearable to watch. Cole Houser gives the most believable Cowboy performance of the cast, and even here I was disappointed that there wasn't more grit in his character and dialogue. There rest of the cast seems to be what today's Hollywood thinks a Cowboy should be and it's not at all believable.

I can't make much more of a review because I admittedly tapped out of this train wreck early, but I doubt anyone was going to suddenly learn how to portray a western cowboy if they didn't figure it out in the first half hour.

Save your time and find another western to watch, this one will disappoint even the most casual western fan.