20 January,2024 02:13 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
Stills from the movie
A generic western comes our way after a long hiatus but it's not the âUnforgiven' kind. This one is way too insignificant and frivolous to be likeable.
A pair of saloon girls Alice (Chantelle Albers) and Nora (Hannah James), get run out of town by a mob of jealous wives known as The Women's Decency League, and en route they save a bounty hunter Elden (Cam Gigandet), who has been shot to hell, and get pursued by a murdering bandit named Gila Grimes.
Beau Hilliard's script and storyline might have looked more promising under the helming of a more experienced Director. The bare bones plot is basically there to lend credence to the chase through desolate boulder strewn landscape inhabited in bits by Indians. A first-time directorial effort by Raliegh Wilson who previously worked as a stuntman and livestock wrangler on films like Dead for a Dollar and FDR: American Badass!, this film barely showcases any of that experience. The narrative lacks tension for most of its runtime and the pacing is uneven. There's little happening here that catches the eye. The two lead actresses don't have it in them to be memorable either.
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The tone is also pretty much unsteady. It goes from shock to jokey to perilous without allowing the audience to develop an attachment. The attempt to up the ante with an attempted rape of a captive Native Woman and one of the saloon girls, proves futile. The film's first half hour is more concerned with double entendres and pronounced put downs of the two saloon girls before the development of some romance and gunplays that leave half the cast dead. The gunplays are also pretty much inept. For a Bounty Hunter Elden is shown as a poor shot maker. There's hardly any action here. And none if it is spectacular or exciting for that matter. Bruce Logan's cinematography of the rugged landscape is the only good thing to behold here. Not a fruitful watch this!