As Good As It Gets

A different way of telling a story

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

In LONE RIDER, I was hoping for another A GUNFIGHTER'S PLEDGE. That is to say, a made-for-TV yarn with a name actor in the lead and all the trappings of a good old-fashioned, gunslinging tale of the Old West. What I got here was utter boredom, including the big shootout near the end. Lou D. Phillips returns from the war to the family homestead, only to discover an old friend (Vincent Spano) is buying up everybody's property and running them off. The plot as such is the same as A GUNFIGHTER'S PLEDGE, which saw Luke Perry as a former sheriff defending a widow's ranch against a land-grabbing evildoer (played by a black-clad, mustache-twirling C. Thomas Howell). We run into immediate problems in LONE RIDER: as much as I like Phillips, he doesn't ring true as a soldier-turned-civilian in the Old West. He's too clean-shaven and nicely groomed. Also, Spano acts like he's reading his script for the first time, and is unconvincing as an old friend-turned-enemy. Likewise, Stacy Keach playing Phillips' dad reads his lines (trite as they may be) so flatly, you have to believe he knew what a turkey he got himself into here. The two females leads are generic and forgettable. Also, no matter what Spano does, including beating up Phillips' cousin and later killing his dad, Phillips just sort of sits around, doing nothing -- until the very end, at least, when there is a badly staged and photographed gunfight. Luke Perry, who did feel like a real cowboy in his TV movie, would have made the bad guys pay dearly a lot sooner and a lot swifter. I have a feeling this may have been shot in Canada, which is always a mistake. Everything seems to be moving under water, which is typical of Canadian-lensed TV movies.

If not for Lou Diamond Phillips this would be a mediocre made for TV western. Phillips plays Bobby Hattaway, a decorated soldier on his way home to the family business and his long time sweetheart. Bobby finds that his childhood friend Stu Croker(Vincent Spano)has pretty well taken control of every business in town and holds mortgage on Bobby's dad's homestead and mercantile. Plus he has wed Bobby's sweetheart Connie(Cynthia Preston)and treats her like trash. There is hell to pay when the elder Hattaway(Stacy Keach)is murdered. Bobby's army buddy(Tom Schanley)arrives in time to help take the town back from Croker. Also in the cast: Angela Alvarado, Terry Maratos and Mike Starr.

What a disappointment. I like Lou Diamond Phillips, and he and some other actors try, but the script, direction, and editing are terrible.All the characters are one dimensional. The villain is so totally mean and one dimensional that one cannot fathom that he was Phillip's character's best friend when they were younger.I wonder if the script was longer and it was butchered to fit into a 2 hour time slot on TV? Or was the script so bad this was all the director had to work with? Or was the editor at fault in fitting the movie into a 2 hour time slot? A number of scenes come so rapid fire to establish continuity and move the plot along, but they are so short and jarring that I wondered what I was missing.For example, Phillips's character gets a woman he is interested in for a picnic. Cut to his cousin getting waylaid, robbed, and beaten. Cut to Phillips returning from the picnic to learn the news his cousin was robbed and beaten and was now at the doctor's place. Cut to talk with his family at the doctor's place about what happened (with no interaction with the cousin). Cut to two of the villain's henchmen beating up a homesteader and tieing him to a tree. Phillip's character witnesses it from a distance. (wait a minute, why is Phillip's wandering the countryside when he should be concerned about his cousin and retribution?) Henchmen ride off. Phillip's rides in and cuts the homesteader loose. The next we know Phillip's speaks with the sheriff to learn the sheriff won't do anything because he says the homesteader won't press charges and Phillip's wasn't there to witness the beating.All the above happens over the course of a few minutes. There is a lot that could be expanded in each scene to give the scene weight, but isn't. Therefore none of it has any emotional resonance and is almost a montage, or could have been done by talking to explain situations. The actual picnic scene should have been there to establish a relationship between Phillips and the woman. I'm not sure why Phillips is attracted to this woman - could she be the only single woman in town not working at the saloon? Speaking of the woman, from the movie she worked for another business woman, yet in trying to remember her character name, IMDb apparently lists her a "Saloon girl". No... in the movie she has a conversation with the saloon owner about not working for him.The fight scenes are poorly shot and edited. Lots of closeups and quick edits. The gunfights are dumb and lame.The villain's wife spends half her screen time running around in corsets and bloomers with a drink in her hand, but somehow the movie can't even make that have a hint of sexiness.Bad, bad, bad.

In Lone Rider Lou Diamond Phillips returns to his small Texas town after war service and looks to settle down with his family. When he left there before the Civil War his parents and cousin had a prosperous ranch and a mercantile in town.But while he's been away, a boyhood friend has become the town boss and is looking to take over the ranch and the mercantile. Lou's father Stacy Keach has borrowed for the store with a loan on the ranch which boyhood friend Vincent Spano wants paid in full.Spano's moving on a few fronts in that town and in the tradition of many westerns the town looks for a champion and Lou fills the bill.Lone Rider reminds me a whole lot of some of the Anthony Mann/James Stewart westerns of the Fifties. Phillips is playing a part that half a century ago Jimmy Stewart would have been playing. In fact there are distinct plot elements from The Far Country and Bend of the River in Lone Rider.And fifty years ago Lone Rider would have been released on the big screen when westerns had more of a market and would have been acclaimed and enjoyed.But for western fans like your's truly, we still enjoy them.