Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story

...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.

I love westerns and It seems good westerns are a thing of the past. Therefore, I was truly hoping this would be, at least, a decent movie. Instantly, I was disappointed that the acting is below average. Still wishing to like it I watched further and found the story to be predictable. I'll keep searching.

I have to admit I was not glued to the screen for this one. It looked like it might be good. But it just felt flat and sterile. Kind of like a diet soda. It's all there but something tells you its not the real thing. The story was OK, pretty typical. visually it is again passing. The acting is flat and the characters are hard to care about. It does try to be clever and have cool memorable lines but it comes of forced. Things like the firearms having no visible recoil is annoying. Maybe that is nitpicky but this is a moving about gun fighting. It makes the weapons seem impotent/harmless. If you have ever fired a single action .45 i'm sure you'll agree with my observation. "I want you to see this live!" compared to what? I'm pretty sure everything people saw back then was "live". Anyway, I guess I can't say don't watch it. Give it a try. It just did not work for me. Good modern westerns = Tombstone, Unforgiven, even Wyatt Erp, etc. This is far far away from those.

RELEASED IN 2016 and directed by Terry Miles, "Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story" stars Trace Adkins as a former stagecoach robber who turns over a new leaf and marries, but feels forced to turn back to outlawry when a one-eyed marshal tries to apprehend him (Judd Nelson). Kim Coates and Claude Duhamel are on hand as his gang members.

Adkins makes for an iconic Westerner, as witnessed in "Traded" (2016) and "Hickok" (2017). The difference between "Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story" and those two is (1.) Adkins plays the main protagonist and (2.) it's noticeably inferior in overall filmmaking, even though it cost approximately the same amount to make. In other words, as low-budget as "Traded" and "Hickok" were, they worked quite well as made-for-TV (or direct-to-video) Westerns, all things considered. "Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story" is almost amateurish by comparison.

Nevertheless, it has some points of interest for those who don't mind slipshod productions: Adkins is a likable protagonist; the one-eyed marshal was the dope-smoking rebel in "The Breakfast Club" (1985); Michelle Harrison is stunning as the protagonist's redheaded wife, Laura Lee; Helena Marie plays Bonnie, a striking tall blonde deputy with a penchant for killing; the British Columbia locations are effective; and there's a quality moral about not trusting people of dubious character, particularly LIARS.

THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 30 minutes and was shot in British Columbia (Mission and Maple Ridge). WRITERS: Dan Benamor and Matt Williams.

GRADE: C/C-

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.