The Gundown

"If you had been under my command I'd have had you hung. I will never pay you a cent for protection." Travis McCain (Shockley) has taken over the town of Dead River and the people are living in fear. When Cole Brandt (Walker) comes in to town looking for revenge for the murderer of his wife and child he finds someone that needs to be taken care of. This is a movie where the plot and idea is much better then the movie was. While it had some really good scenes and action, it was just much, much to slow moving and hard to get into. The acting was not bad and it was decently made, it was just really tough to get into. If you are a hardcore western fan this till appeal to you, if you like an occasional one it would be better to go find a different one. Overall, not a bad movie just way to slow to fully keep you interested for the entire time. I give it a C-.

Would I watch again? - I barely made it through once. No

Sometimes I read negative reviews on IMDB and AMAZON and wonder what planet some of the reviewers are on. Not every film can have a budget of millions so it is not always fair to compare smaller indie films like this with the likes of the remake of The Magnificent Seven. But this is a cracking good western and if you like good action and fine performances in the old tradition of the western then this is for you. I can tell you from personal experience that negative reviews without any positivity in them simply shows a lack of understanding. We need more westerns like this to keep the genre alive and kicking!

Granted, while I am not particularly a fan of the Western genre, I do occasionally sit down to watch one such movie from time to time. And as I happened to stumble upon the 2011 movie "The Gundown" from director Dustin Rikert here in 2024, I opted to watch it, as it was a movie I had never seen before, much less actually heard about.

Writers Dustin Rikert and William Shockley put together a fair enough script and storyline here. It was a pretty straightforward type of Western story. So if you are a diehard fan of the Western genre, then you will definitely find something enjoyable in "The Gundown".

Of the entire cast ensemble in the movie I was only familiar with actor Peter Coyote. But I will say that the acting performances were actually fair. And there were some good talents on the screen, despite of them being unfamiliar faces and names. I've seen actor (and writer) William Shockley before in other movies, but he is not someone that I am overly familiar with.

It was so hard to take my eyes off of the lips of actress Veronica Milagros whenever she was on the screen. I am sorry, but what the Hell was going on there? I am sure that there wasn't that kind of Botox lips around in the mid-1800s America. It was just such a poor casting choice there.

I will say that the wardrobe, props and sets were good and definitely had a convincing mid-1800s Western feel to it. Well, except for those Botox lips.

"The Gundown" was a fair enough Western movie, though hardly a particularly memorable or outstanding movie. I can't claim that it is a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of director Dustin Rikert's 2011 movie "The Gundown" lands on a five out of ten stars.

OK. Let me explain. This was such a good attempt. Some money's been spent, (not on the script, admittedly). It's been spent on some decent sets, a few actors, some (occasionally decent) cinematography.

And in these days, a straightforward Good-v-Evil western is refreshing, or, rather, SHOULD BE refreshing. And this tries hard. And (sadly) fails.

The storyline is OK, derivative, but modernised, and - well - OK, what can I say, it's just alright.

The acting's OK, pretty good, in parts. The hero, well, he's a hero. We are in NO DOUBT that he's a good guy.

The women are - well, women, really. The strong mother is OK, ('til the end bit, where she mainly screams and doesn't shoot anything), but mainly the women are pretty 2 dimensional, apart from the one who has so much plastic in her lips she looks like she has her mouth on upside down, and she disappears from the story in a really unconvincing way.

Oh, I don't know. I wanted to like this. I watched it to the end, (Parenthood meets Mum's Apple Pie), and I'm not left with an AWFUL taste in my mouth, just a bitter disappointment. It should have been better.

OK. To be honest? If the producer had hired a decent director, it would have been better.

And he also should have spent a few dollars on someone to direct his fight scenes. That last one is pretty bad.

But, OK, I gave it a 6 out of 10. Because it wasn't THAT bad. Just it should have, could have, been far better.

It was great to see a lower budget movie produced with attention to quality actors, quality costuming, quality sets, and even quality music. Yes the movie has some issues typical of a lower budget. You see sporadic problems with continuity and editing. And a few boo-boos with stunts and lighting. But those are sporadic. There's nothing so glaring to make you want to turn it off. The vision is clear from the beginning and despite a few oopsies it's a decent movie. I only wish the DVD cover floating around on Facebook had been used instead of the retro-art modern looking outlaw. At least you'd know what kind of western you are going to view (action and romance and morals)instead of a martial arts testosterone action only flick.