Dollar for the Dead

This "spaghetti western" wannabe is long on style, and short on story, with mixed up casting. The action scenes are so stylized with slow motion and cartoon like violence that any impact is completely lost. Emilo Estevez is severly miscast as the mysterious stranger. He certainly lacks the mystique of Clint Eastwood, and his sidekick, William Forsythe is no Eli Wallach. The greatest strength of "Dollar For the Dead" is in the supporting cast, but they are criminally underused, and barely have any screen time. Ed Lauter is a fine character actor, and he outshines Emilio Estevez in every scene they share. Jonathan Banks barely has any lines at all. When the only one in the entire movie who comes close to nailing true laconic "spaghetti western" acting is Howie Long, you know you have a problem. - MERK

Good Eurowestern! The producer Tony Anthony is in fact THE Tony Anthony who starred in several very well made Eurowesterns including the original version of this movie known as "A Stranger In Town" Un-fortunately, Emilio Estevez is miscast in this remake,and his acting is not suited to this kind of film. The movie would have been a lot better with someone else cast in the role of "The Stranger" AKA "Cowboy"! See the original instead! It is available on video at a hefty price of $25.00, from Luminous Film and Video Wurks, but it is well worth your time and money!

Tongue - in - cheek western adventure with all the "clichés" of the genre. A lone gunfighter (Estevez) teams up with a ex - confederate soldier (Forsythe) to find gold in a little Mexican village tormented by ruthless bandits. Mr. Quintano, the director of this one, seems a bit influenced by John Woo (mainly in the scenes of shooting). Extremely predictable but otherwise effective in its purpose. A good fun for western addicts. I give this a 6 (six).

A made-for-TV feature that is paying homage (sometimes generic throwaway visual, or dialogue references) or could feel mock serious in tone... was it parodying(?) all things spaghetti westerns (right down to union soldiers, Mexican army, preacher, poor Mexican town and hidden gold). However for good measure during (most) shootouts it can become an out-of-place John Woo hybrid with flashy framing, dramatic flailing and slow-mo set-pieces. Very staged and low-budget in execution, but ridiculously daft when it escalates into trampolining gun-fu moments to enliven the Wild West formula.

Emilio Estevez is doing his best 'man with no name' impression. Steely eyed and all, but the hard boiled act isn't very convincing. While the likes of William Forsythe, Howie Long, Jonathan Banks and Ed Lauter fair much better, especially when delivering the no-nonsense dialogues.

I would have liked a few more plot twists and turns but was entertained by this film for the most part. I thought the guy who played the padre & the mean Federale captain, Jordi Molla, did a very good job acting. Also good was Dulley, the one-legged companion to Estevez. The photography was pretty good, beautifull scenery & I loved the movie score that went with it. It was interesting to note at the closing credits that the whole film was filmed in Spain. I would of sworn the film took place somewhere in the southwestern United States. Also interesting was the old-fashioned "machine gun" that Dulley used toward the end of the flick. I wouldn't mind having this video in my own library.