(Review originally written at 7 August 2007)
There are tons of comedies made every year. Not too many of them are about the old west It's also not a mix that really ever works out, without becoming a spoof of the genre and use all of its formulaic elements.
The story seems to lack a clear purpose. It's hard to say what the movie is really about and were its heading to. One top of that, things just don't ever flow well in the movie. Everything seems to happen suddenly and without a reason for the rest of the story.
On its comical level its also a rather weak one. For a comedy it surely has some few real laughs. It's one of those comedies that keeps you waiting for a punch-line that just never comes. On top of that the situations in this movie just aren't humorous. Guess they thought that the movie would already be strong and funny enough by making it a buddy-flick, about an old bandit and a mute bandit-wannabe.
Paul Hogan isn't too bad in this movie, although he was clearly far too old for his role at the time. He provides the movie with its best comical moments and some good funny dialog. The Cuba Gooding Jr. character is a bit of a weird one. He's a mute who works at a store and he obviously feel that he is above the simple town-folk and then for some unexplained reasons decides to become a bandit and team-up with, the obviously incapable, bandit Lightning Jack Kane. It also makes you wonder what's the challenging thing for a character to play a mute character. Cuba Gooding Jr. really isn't a bad actors but he too often appears in such weak movies and uninteresting comical roles, that it makes you wonder why he keeps doing it. Guess that he just has fun playing in these type of movies. I'm happy that at least someone had fun. Pat Hingle is also in this movie, in a typical Pat Hingle role. Too bad that they didn't gave his character more screen time, though they potentially really could had done that.
The movie is rather good looking and it doesn't look like some cheap attempt. The costume were especially nice. The musical score on the other hand didn't seemed fitting. It's one of those simplistic scores that sound as if it was completed months before the movie finished shooting and therefor doesn't fit or add anything to the images.
Has its moments but overall a below average and totally uninteresting comedy attempt.
5/10
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