Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story

This movie was horrible. Bad script, bad acting, even the gun fights were horrible. Just bad, bad bad bad bad! Not even of B movie quality. The few people you will recognize have always played side character, and this movie will show why the should stay there. This was one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time.

...should stick to music.

Saw a few good reviews for this one and assume that they were either part of the cast or watching a different movie.

Lame story. Bad acting. Apparently couldn't even be bothered to come up with new names for the characters. Not engaging, not amusing, not up to the standards of your cheesiest spaghetti western. Fan of B movies and this doesn't even hit that standard. Kept waiting for some redeeming feature...nothing showed.

Way too many minutes of my life gone forever.

Disappointing in almost every single way.

Where to start...the dialogue felt like the characters had just stumbled off some sit-com set, and were discussing what's for dinner or the latest on who's dating who. I can't think of a single character who delivered their lines with any grit, as we have come to expect in the Western genre. Some realistic acting limited to the facial expressions, at least - occasionally.

Some of the gunfights are almost comical, childish. Two enemies leaning around corners and shooting at nothing much, while their opponent is out of sight. Which is partly interrupted by some dialogue. Don't think I've seen guns fired on screen anytime, ever, where there was absolutely no tension. It is farcical at times.

The music feels like something from a video game. No variation, the dynamics are almost distracting from what is happening on-screen as they do not seem to match. Occasionally the music cuts out before resuming again 'for effect' I guess that was supposed to be. Interesting that the score is performed, recorded and mixed by just one man. Midi I am guessing then (that would make total sense, in hindsight).

I'm repeating what other reviewers have said, that it just feels like it is going through the motions. We are never captivated by the characters.

In its defence, the setting and the props (carriages, not so much the guns) seem fairly true to the genre. It gets 2 rather than 1 star for evoking something of the wilderness of the Western setting effectively.

Save 1 1/2 hrs of your time and don't bother. We gave it more time than the other review in hopes that it would improve. Unfortunately, it didn't. Trace Adkins' acting was comparable to the other characters but the story line did not have the depth necessary for it to be a good western. We like good westerns but this definitely failed to deliver.

Masked men led by Nathaniel Reed (Trace Adkins) rob a stagecoach driven by Calhoun (Kim Coates). Some years later, Nathaniel is three months behind on his mortgage. His wife Laura Lee Reed (Michelle Harrison) is sick. Former running mate Frank Bell arrives with news of another former mate being killed after tortured for information. Despite the warning, Nathaniel refuses to run. Calhoun is now a Marshall and arrives with Bonnie Mudd looking to capture him alive. In the gunfight, Calhoun kills Laura Lee. Nathaniel goes back to robbing with Frank and another mate Sid (Judd Nelson).

My first complaint may seem petty but it is important. I don't like some of the gunshot sounds especially inside the house. They sound soft almost like a cap gun. They need more power. The second annoying thing is the need to make Nathaniel the hero of the story. He insists on not hurting people during the robberies. It's such a weak and obvious move. He's almost a gentleman in the way that he's written. While Trace Adkins has functional acting skills, it is nowhere deep enough to be an emotional performance. All in all, this is not exciting. It is not insightful. It is not that interesting other than getting me to skim through Nathaniel Reed's wiki page.