The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

RELEASED IN 1994 and directed by Richard Donner, "Maverick" stars Mel Gibson as the amicable titular gambler who meets up with a fetching scam-artist (Jodi Foster), an aged marshal (James Garner) and an ill-tempered outlaw (Alfred Molina) on his way to a poker tournament on a riverboat at the Columbia River Gorge. Who will win the tournament? James Coburn plays the dubious host on the riverboat while Graham Greene appears as a comical Native chief.The tone is along the lines of comedy Westerns like "The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox" (1976), "Support Your Local Sheriff" (1969) and "Texas Across the River" (1966) so, if you like those Westerns, you'll probably appreciate this one ("Texas" is more campy though). The Western locations are to die for and Foster is striking. The camaraderie of the three main stars is entertaining. The sequence with Graham Greene in the second act stands out and is only surpassed by the riverboat sequence in the last act.THE FILM RUNS 127 minutes and was shot in Arizona (Glen Canyon, Lake Powell, Mescal, Page, Lee's Ferry and Marble Canyon), Utah (Glen Canyon), California (Yosemite National Park, Lone Pine, El Mirage Dry Lake & Burbank studios) and Washington/Oregon (Columbia River Gorge & Beacon Rock). WRITER: William Goldman.GRADE: B

In this fun entertaining film, u laugh a lot, and I didn't expect to before watching it, boy was I pleasantly surprised!! This film just does everything right, whenever I watch it I always feel great while watching. The Wild West is a very fun place in this flick based off an old TV show. Jodie foster was probably my favorite character. But let's not discount Mel and James, they were fantastic together! Laughed and had a heck of a lot of fun with this movie. If your looking for a serious john Wayne style western, then this isn't for you, try True Grit if that's what your a fan of. So round up the family and get ready for a really fun night with this comedic western flick!!

Love this film. It's silly, funny, irreverent and clever, and does not take itself seriously at all. Mel Gibson is at his most charming and irrepressible, and Jodie Foster dazzles as con-merchant and petite-criminal Annabelle Bransford, Bret Maverick's "nemesis" in the story. The plot is simply that Bret has to secure $25,000 to enter a poker tournament and he has some trouble raising the money given Annabelle trying to rip him off and Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner - the original TV Maverick) doing his best to stop him getting to his destination. Bret is a fast-thinking, fast-talking trickster who's friendship with local Native American Indian Joseph (the brilliant Graham Greene) gets the trio out of a tight spot and also makes for the funniest scenes of the film. Some great stunts, amazing one-liners and a shocking disregard to the amounts of money they have pass through their hands (given it's set in the 1800s) make this an enjoyable, charming and pleasing film.Amusing cameo from Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon)

Maverick is directed by Richard Donner and written by William Goldman. It stars Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, with support coming from Alfred Molina, Graham Greene and James Coburn. The music is scored by Randy Newman and Vilmos Zsigmond is on photography. It's based on the 1950s television series of the same name and the plot finds Gibson as Maverick and follows his attempt to take his place in a major five-card draw poker tournament. With Foster and Garner in tow, there's plenty of adventures and misadventures along the way. After Costner's Dances With Wolves and Eastwood's Unforgiven had reignited interest in the Western genre in the 90s, Richard Donner and his team felt the time was right to unleash a light hearted Western on the mainstream audience. Timing was important, as was the casting, but Maverick is the sort of family friendly fun that could in truth be released at any time in any decade and still be a hit at the box office. It's not particularly clever in narrative or themes, but with its blending of action, romance and comedy seamlessly coming together as a whole, Maverick is practically hard to dislike. Even the cast seem to be having a real good time, with Gibson smooth and roguish, Foster dainty yet spunky and Garner (the original Maverick from the TV show) offering up a sort of stoic maturity over proceedings; with all three playing the comedy with ease (how great it is to see Foster in such a role). Donner and Goldman have also shown respect to both the TV show and the Western in general (check out those lovely landscapes), while it's always fun to play spot the numerous stars in the cameos. Harmless fluff, then, but always watchable and never once over reaching itself by trying to be something it's not. 7.5/10