Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Overrated and overhyped

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Bill Hickok, appointed chief lawman in Abilene, finds himself at odds with a local business bigwig.This film, starring Luke Hemsworth as Hickok, purports to be a biopic of his early days and his transition from itinerant vagrant to lawman. I have no idea how true it is, other than that it is truly dull. Even the action is unexciting.There is an ill-judged love story featuring a young lady so dour you can't imagine one person in competition for, let alone two. And Hemsworth is considerably less possessed of charisma than his two siblings.On the other hand, there is no bad kanguage, and the film is in focus. I can find no other grounds on which to recommend it.

Sometimes you take a chance on a movie you never heard of and you find a little gem. Other times, you end up wasting an hour and half of your life like you do when you watch this movie.It's rare that I watch a movie where the writing and direction is so bad that I actually looked up who the writer (Michael Lanahan) and director (Timothy Woodward Jr.) were for no other reason than to make sure I never watch anything from either of them again. It's almost like the director read the script, knew it was going to suck, then decided to see if he could one up the script by directing a jumpy movie with no flow. The writing was so bad that you could almost feel the actors not wanting to say the lines. some of the scenes were so stupid you had to actually laugh, like when the bad guys shoot up Wild Bill's house, throw a stick of dynamite in there, then when the dynamite gets thrown out by Bill, one of them goes, "We must've got him!" Sure buddy, most dead guys throw dynamite back. Then there was the rip off of Gladiator where Trace Adkins' character brings his fiance and son in for a little questioning before eventually smacking them both. The makeup person, who may have also been the director based off the ridiculous "black eye" they put on Cameron Richardson after getting smacked, seemed to want to one up the other ridiculousness by putting on a "black eye" that basically made it look like she got hit by a 2x4 across the side of her face.And who did the casting? Luke Hemsworth looks nothing like Wild Bill Hickok and I'm telling you, he's definitely the worse acting Hemsworth and that's saying something. Kris Kristofferson has a look on face in every scene like he knows he's just phoning this gig in and Trace Adkins just is not a very believable bad guy. Maybe it's those commercials he does for Wounded Warrior. It's hard to take him as a bad guy and he doesn't have the acting chops to pull it off.Bruce Dern? His yellow teeth were the best part of his role. He was also involved in one the dumbest scenes of the movie and that's saying something. Hickok tries to distract the kid (who was randomly shot when some guys come into town shooting their guns) by telling him some dumb story while Dern (the doctor) takes a bullet. It might have made more sense if the doctor actually took the bullet out while the kld was being distracted but no, he waits until the story is over and then the kids screams in agony as the idiot takes out the bullet.Want to know why the movie gets two stars vs one? There's a nice sunset scene with a train in the beginning that fools the viewer into thinking this movie might be decent, but alas, it's mirage as you soon enough will be inundated with dialog a 10-year old might write for his school play. Oh, and there's a nice side boob scene with Cameron Richardson. That's about it!

Students of history know the legend of James Butler Hickok was highly fictionalized in the dime novels of his era; however, this film goes so far beyond fiction that the title and titled character could have been called Wild Bill Pisspot and no one would be any wiser that the story was supposed to be about Hickok. The acting barely existent. Kris Kristofferson has kept his streak alive by being in yet another film in which displays absolutely no acting ability. As for Trace Atkins, he definitely shouldn't quit his singing career since it's something he's actually good at. I'm sure he's having fun dressing up and playing cowboy in the movies, but he does so at the cost of his dignity. He should consider firing his Hollywood agent and any posse of yes men who deceptively praise his performance, and face that fact acting talent he has not. Luke Hemsworth's performance is mediocre at best, but I believe it's entirely a result of an idiotic, unscreenworthy screenplay and lack of directing talent. I liked Bruce Dern as the kindly old drunken doctor, but the Director and Screenwriter did him a grave disservice by limiting his role and providing him dialogue that is far beneath his talent. I'll never forget the first time I saw Bruce Dern in a movie. It was 1972, I was 11 years old watching John Wayne and The Cowboys at the local movie house, and Bruce Dern simply scared the the hell out of me and my buddies when he threatened the little cowboy with the eyeglasses. For a long time afterward, we all but despised Dern. To making such a lasting and emotional impression on a generation of movie goers is the sign of an exceptional actor. As for the editing of this not so fine feature, once could only assume the job was given to the producer's young brother-in-law in order to just get his unreal Hollywood housewife to get the hell off his back about finding Junior a job in the movie business, because this film's editing is as choppy as it gets. To all the non-psychic investors out there who actually helped finance this F-class movie, I'm sure there are many more realist viewers out there who are thinking...."suckers!"

The best film I've seen done on Wild Bill Hickok is White Buffalo where Charles Bronson played the legendary frontier marshal. It was set at a different time and place during his life. This film Hickok is set at the beginning showing some of his Civil War service and the beginning of his time as marshal of Abilene.Unlike Wyatt Earp who rarely used his weapon and before the OK Corral business had only killed one man, Hickok was as fast as rumored and had a few kills listed to him. That's what is shown here. Luke Hemsworth who plays Hickok also carries a shotgun as most peace officers did. What counted was to make sure hit your target. He has quite the standoff with John Wesley Hardin who in real life never made it as far north as Kansas. He certainly wasn't Hickok's deputy. Hardin is played here by Kaiwi Lyman-Mesereau. The film moves at a tortoise pace attributable to some bad direction and the characters never engage you the way the cast in the Bronson film did. Having such veterans as Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Dern help a bit. But this is not the final cinematic word on Wild Bill Hickok.