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franklincolletta
Reviews
Dead Man's Hand (2023)
We are giving this movie a charitable 3 stars
How much we wanted this western to live up to it's 7.9 Rating. Terrible, excessive, painfully poor acting by some of the main characters, barely believable story. Honestly, I wasn't planning to write a review as I am usually far too lazy but, on impulse, I chose to lookup True Grit - suspecting that even that classic would be ranked at lower than 7.9. And so it was. True Grit is rated at 7.4 as of this writing. Spurred by this travesty, here I am to say my piece. We looked forward to seeing Cole Hauser in a new movie. Although he wasn't given much to do, he was believable and gave a credible performance. Steven Dorff didn't have the same presence as he did in Old Hernry, hisThe roles of two of the stars. The actors playing Reno and Vegas just weren't good. Perhaps it was the material they were given to work with. The writing wasn't a highlight. Lots of shooting, blood spatters, fingers being chopped off, etc. If these things are your bag, however, give this clunker a try.
The Moonshine War (1970)
A Unexpectedly Enjoyable Movie
I thoroughly enjoyed this offbeat movie. Patrick McGoohan as a Tennessee revenooer? Yep, he pulls it off. Alan Alda as a moonshiner? Alda plays it low key. He's as cool as a cucumber despite facing considerable adversity. With more great performances from Richard Widmark, Will Geer, Bo Hopkins and, as a demented killer, Lee Hazlewood. Widmark played a bad guy but without the sneering, evil tones he was known for. Not sure whether previous reviewers watched the entire movie as the low ratings were a surprise to me. Regardless, I took the plunge and I'm glad that I did. Everyone in town loved Son Martin (Alda) so I found it interesting that the writers refrained from making this a typical rally around your buddy film, instead portraying all of Son's friends as nothing more than interested spectators. I say give this movie a try and you won't be disappointed.