Dawn Rider

If you're looking for historical accuracy don't watch this film. I actually really enjoed it. Donald Southerland gives a solid performance. It waz different and had some good humor. Lochlyn Munro as always is solid as a bad guy, and Jill Hennessy was beguiling. I'm not a fan of Christian Slater but he was pretty decent. For a light, not havinv to think movie, this is the ond for you.

What can you say, this movie is what it is. I think the movie's budget went to paying all of the top 4 actors their salary. I must say Jill Hennessy still looks great and she was the best thing about this movie. What's up with the town they live in though? There's only like 10 people that live in this town. They couldn't hire 20 more extras? Gee whiz lol. I mean, Mason couldn't figure out out of the 10 people that lived in the town who the bad guy/guys were from the beginning? Again, I think the budget went to the salaries of the actors. I loved Christian Slater's early work with True Romance, and Pump up the Volume, but he hasn't been able to play adult roles very well. He never was able to make that transition convincingly. If you want a good laugh though, check this film out.

This movie is good in the way a Steve Austin action movie can be good if you know what to expect. It feels like a parody of a western because all the stereotypical elements are there but it treats itself seriously. That's why some will like it and others completely hate it so it makes it difficult to recommend to anyone. I personally found the clothes and sets a little distracting because everything felt slightly wrong for pre-1900. The low budget probably limited what could be custom made so you just have to overlook it. The music was also wrong in a few places, some points have an almost comical tone and don't match the situation. If you are the type to get bothered by details then this movie would be difficult to get through, otherwise it's a good average western themed movie. I just don't consider it a good western.

Lately John Wayne films have been getting lots of remakes. Offhand I've seen remakes for Stagecoach, The Alamo, The Sons Of Katie Elder, The Angel And The Badman, True Grit and now a film from his early B western period, Dawn Rider. John Wayne was one of a kind, no one should expect to emulate him. But Christian Slater, you shouldn't have tried. Several of the plot elements are the same and Slater and the rest of the cast use the same character names, but there's no way unless you were a John Wayne fan you could possibly guess this was a remake of one of his films. Slater, a man of some notoriety in the west comes home to visit his father who runs the local Express company office in his town and shortly afterward is there when his father is killed in a robbery attempt. It's a quest for vengeance after that and the killer is closer to him than he thinks. One new element that was introduced was Donald Sutherland as a bounty hunter also after Slater. His character seemed to superfluous in a way. But this remake is certainly not a true remake of the Lone Star western the Duke did in his B western period where the good guys and bad guys were fairly obvious. Then again that western was for the Saturday matinée kid's trade in 1935. Slater is an actor who specializes in quirky and sometime unstable characters. John Wayne's boots were too big to fill.

Jill Henessey is looking old, as is Sutherland, because he is. Slaters constant drinking, smoking and quotes got old fast. Henessey as an Annie Oakley wanna be, finally gets a chance to use the gun she keeps displaying to shoot her worthless criminal brother and doesn't. Why in the world didn't any of the fools who saw the masked marauders during the day put two and two together on their clothes and hats? They looked the same in town except no masks. Even in those days, you didn't just pull the badge off a dead man and become his replacement. A bounty hunter who is also a US Marshal is tracking a man who cheated at cards in a Mexico prison resulting in the death of one prisoner and the release of another for a family that wants revenge. Wow, talk about a reach. The only thing I find mildly good about this is the ending. Everything from opening credits to that point was a waste of time.

Using most of the character names as was used in the original Tom Tyler film (Monogram) and the remakes starring John Wayne (Lone Star-Monogram) and Bob Baker (Uinversal), it would appear that such an outright theft should have also been noted when the writing credits appear on this film...but try as I may I fail to find one line on any frame of this film that mention this film was base on an original story and screenplay by Wellyn Totman, and also on subsequent screenplays by Robert N. Bradbury and George Waggner. Evidently, the use of previously-written copyrighted material, without crediting any of the original story or screenplay writers is no problem in Canada. A simple based-upon-by nod would have been honest, at least.

Having always been a big fan of Westerns I saw this listed and after reading the cast thought it might be an OK watch even though it got a low score on here. Low scores seem to be becoming a standard on here for any movie that doesn't have lots of action and explosions. Christian Slater can be very hit and miss with his movies and Donald Sutherland is getting a bit past it and now only plays bit parts, but I still thought this was worth a watch. I hadn't seen any of Jill Hennessy's work before but after watching this now will be having a look at Jordans Crossing. This follows the tried and true formula of a lot of westerns in the past with man hunts and revenge and a bit of humour thrown in here and there. Without giving the plot away completely a son (Christian Slater) comes home to his home town and his father gets murdered in a robbery. The son get wounded in the robbery as well and is nursed back to health by an old friend (Jill Hennessy), who just happens to be the sister of one of the robbers. The son, is also an ex Pinkerton detective and on the run from a dubious character (Sutherland) and he decides to try to find his fathers killers. Some of the gunfights are a bit farcical and they are not very good shots but overall the movie is quite entertaining and mostly moves at a good pace with a few slow spots. 6/10 for me.

I'm a big fan of westerns and have been since my childhood in the 60's. This is perhaps the worst western i've ever seen. It had such promise, Christian Slater and Donald Southerland are two actors I've always enjoyed. I sought this film out because they're in it, what a walloping disappointment! Stupid plot, flat acting, ridiculous inconsistencies, modern dialogue far removed from period correct, empty characters, the list of bad qualities goes on. The entire production is really lousy. There are giant holes in the story line that get filled with the kind of convenience elements a high school level writer would utilize. i tried really hard to care about any of the characters but they were so thin that there wasn't anything to care about. Phoned in performances from Southerland and Slater were a huge disappointment.

terrible western screenplay with lousy storyline and deadbeat plot, bad directing and bad acting. this western should not be made into production because it's worthless. pretentiously tried very hard to be cool but turned out to be so hollow. first, we got a close up of the guy urinated with a projectile urine line in the very beginning when it showed 'Dakota Territory, 1883", then we heard the title song kept singing in the background, then the song went on vaguely, then when the so-called 'Cincinnati Kid' open the door, the volume of the song suddenly became louder. well, did you see what wrong with such stupid arrangement? no? well, let me to tell you: it's like that there's a phonograph (record player) playing the album inside, the volume was blocked by the door, so when the door was opened, the volume suddenly came out of the opening; such arrangement of directing was just....!@#$! then the guy kept drinking out of a bottle, then three bounty hunters came and sneaked up, two of the low-level no-brains started shoot at the cabin built with lumbers, they shot the door, the glass windows...and the leader said when the shoots ended: "alive worth $500 more....now you killed him". give me a break, will you? shooting at a lumber/timber cabin from afar thru the windows and the door would kill the target? and later when the so-called Cincinnati drinker/drunk came to town, he found the robbers in front the post office then he started shooting WITH HIS TWO GUNS at very close range, his shootings were so lame, the way he held his guns was so funny, and his two guns kept shooting, at such close distance, his double guns....? well, i just can't go on to tell you how bad this movie is