Ghost Rock

First, let me say that I am a fan of westerns, including many of the more recent in the genre. Still, I found this movie to be an utter waste of time.

The action scenes in this movie are easily the worst that I have seen in a movie which was not a total spoof. This is made clear in the second scene of the movie as a man is "thrown out" of a building, which involves hopping a few times out a door into a small somersault. Action scenes throughout the movie have some of the least convincing fake punches, gun wounds, and deaths in cinematic history. Some of the kung fu scenes are a small step up, but the editing into and out of these scenes is awful.

The tone of the story is mostly serious, with random bits of comic relief thrown in, but it becomes difficult to sort these from the extremely shallow story and pathetic acting.

When I saw that Gary Busey was in this movie, I had to see it. I knew it would be bad, but I did not know how bad. This movie was bad, and not in a funny way. Gary Busey plays the mayor of a little Western town, and his job is to maintain order while a group of Chinese railroad workers and locals fight for control. There was so much fighting in this movie that it was hard to keep track of the reasons. The fighting was also matrix style, and it was kung fu. Gary Busey was not the only horrible actor in this movie, everyone involved was equally nauseating. I had to turn the movie off after an hour. The worst part is that I had this movie in my home for almost a week.

A "western" with people running around doing Shaolin kung fu. There's a "Chinese" character who looks as Chinese as my Aunt Sally, who has never seen a Chinese person in her life. All the bad guys are dummies, and even though they always have their guns aimed at the good guys at point blank range and could kill them at any time, never bothers to pull the trigger. This, despite the fact that the bad guy's head honcho (Gary Busey) has killed people randomly throughout the film, but for some reason always lets the hero go so he can come back for one of those final shoot-outs. The script by the star is nonsensical, even as camp. The martial arts is actually quite good, but in the background of a western, it's just...wrong. Also, did the female lead steal Sharon Stone's clothes from THE QUICK AND THE DEAD? Someone call the police.

4 out of 10

During the first few minutes, I was on the floor, rolling in laughter. With tears still in my eye, I'm writing this down.

Probably made with a cheap digital camera, the scenes are shot without any thought. The live action compares to a well rehearsed school play. The editing in most porn movies are of higher quality. Actually, most porn movies have better acting in it. This is definitely a movie to be seen with a group of friends and lots of beer. You'll be having so much fun. Don't see this movie because you're expecting a movie. Only watch if you've made sure the floor is clear of pointy things, you need at least 3 by 3 meters to roll around.

An interesting and incongruous mixture of martial arts and old fashioned gunslinging happen in this western of Ghost Rock. The film is so named after a town where Gary Busey is the town boss. He's having some threats to his leadership coming and he's brought in a group of outlaws as enforcers headed by David Jean Thomas who look like they enjoy their work.

Our nominal hero is Michael Worth who can use a little training in both the martial arts and firearms. He's aided and abetted by Sharon Stone ripoff Jenya Lano.

The film is poor in about every department you can name. I guess you either needed the late David Carradine for this kind of hybrid film or Chuck Norris in his salad days.