Masterful Movie

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely amazing

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a unique film in that acting ability is inversely proportional to where the actor is ranked in the cast. Trace Adkins' bio is extremely heavy on his singing career, which ought to tell you his strengths do not lie in his acting ability. His performance as Nate Reed is consistently flat, one dimensional, and loud -- seems the sound mixer cranked up the mic volume for each of his lines. The unhinged marshal's female sidekick (a fetching blond) is equally one dimensional, but just plain evil; the mix of her looks and personal qualities strains the imagination. Story-wise, you can almost predict the next scene based on where you are...almost. We have a few of the "Three weeks before," "One week later," etc. helper screens that serve no purpose other than confuse you. However, about 10 years pass between when "the boys" have a shootout with the marshal and his mate, and Nate Reed is reunited with his wife long thought to have been killed in the battle. They now have a son about 10 years old (she was pregnant at the time of the shoot-out), yet nobody else has aged, and the wife looks better than ever. Perhaps most puzzling is the last few minutes of the movie, when the final showdown occurs and the bad vanquish the even badder. The good marshals show up to apprehend the bad marshal & company, and the scene cuts to Nate Reed leaving church with the family, he and his remaining stage-robber buddy now full-fledged law men. Crops are saved, nobody remembers, and all is forgiven. The more I think about it, the few stars I can give.

...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.

"Dawn Rider" director Terry Miles has helmed another atmospheric, above-average western "Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story," with county music singer Trace Atkins. Ostensibly based on the life of a real-life outlaw, this 91-minute oater chronicles the life of a stagecoach robber who doesn't shoot anybody during the commission of his crimes. Nevertheless, a hopelessly vile one-eyed lawman, Calhoun (Kim Coates of "Waterworld") rides in hot pursuit of him. Eventually, Calhoun corners Nathaniel Reed (Trace Atkins of "The Virginian") who has settled down with a wife, Laura Lee Reed (Michele Harrison of "Paycheck"), who is pregnant with their son. Actually, Reed is several payments behind on his mortgage. Later in the day, an old accomplice in crime, Frank Bell (Claude Duhamel of "Western Religion") shows up unexpectedly and warns him about Calhoun. A gunfight erupts, but our hero and his old partner escape. Bell tells Reed that Laura Lee shot Calhoun and then she died of a gunshot wound. Reluctantly, Reed resorts to business as usual as a stagecoach outlaw, but he warns Bell to refrain from killing anybody. Bell ignores Reed and keeps on shooting people. Meantime, Calhoun is back on Reed's trail after he catches up with a disgruntled Bell who sells his old partner out. At the same time, Reed and another accomplice Sid (Judd Nelson of "The Breakfast Club") go ahead and rob stagecoaches without shooting anybody. Calhoun confronts Bell in a saloon during a poker game. When the other gambler objects to Calhoun interrupting their game, Calhoun's sadistic, trigger-happy gunslinging partner, Bonnie Mudd (Helena Marie of "Crazy Love"), guns the man down in cold blood. About this time, Calhoun and Bonnie come after Nathaniel and Sid, and Nathaniel takes a bullet in the side, and Sid packs him off on his own horse. Sid stays behind to slow up Calhoun and company. In a reversal of events, another lawman rides into the Matt Williams and Dan Benamor screenplay with a warrant for Calhoun's arrest. He explains that Calhoun has exceeded his authority as a lawman and is killing people without proper authority. Like "The Dawn Rider," Miles stages this sprawling, out-of-doors western in mountainous British Columbia, and the scenery looks pretty rugged. Atkins makes a believable as well as sympathetic outlaw, and Helena Marie steals the movie as a pistol-packing babe who displays no compunctions about killing men in cold blood. Mind you, Kim Coates is brilliant as the sleazy, unsavory lawman. Judd Nelson makes a strong impression as Atkins' sidekick. This western packs a surprise or two and it is an interesting horse opera with genuine looking firearms.

"There's a man coming from and he aims to bury you." Nathaniel Reed (Adkins) lived the life of a stagecoach robber and was successful. After taking down a large score him and his band decide to go their separate ways and live straight. Years later his past comes back to haunt him, and Calhoun (Coates) a former victim turned US Marshall is bent on revenge. In recent years most westerns have been what I call the $5 Westerns, meaning that the movies seem to be made on a budget of $5. This one had higher quality, not a ton, but enough. The thing this really had going for it though was that it was good. Surprisingly good. The movie isn't all that original or amazing, but compared to the recent crop of B-westerns this is easily one of the best. The acting is what you would expect but the story is actually well developed and interesting enough for you to stay interested in. The one down fall of this movie was the time jumping. The movie went from past to future to past to present and it was overly confusing. Some of the events didn't seem to line up, but other than that this is defiantly worth watching. Overall, one of the better westerns lately and one that I liked a lot more than I expected to. I surprisingly give this a high B.