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Cast: Luke Perry, Lou Diamond Phillips, Deborah Kara Unger
As Quirt Evens (Phillips) recovers from his injuries, he tries to teach his peace-loving hosts a thing or two about self-defense.
You know anytime there is a remake of a classic of any kind there is always going to be some kind of backlash as it will always be compared to the original. I am not sure why the choose to remake this John Wayne classic but here it is. The film is not a direct remake but it does stay pretty faithful to the original story, one of the main changes here is that instead of an innocent young unmarried girl as Gail Russell played in the original, Deborah Kara Unger is a widow with a young boy to raise which she is doing with her parents. Lou Diamond Phillips is very good here at taking the lead but instead of doing his best imitation of John Wayne he instead decides to play the role his own way which I think was the right choice for several reasons. There are other small differences in this version as well like the role of the marshal that Harry Carey played in the original is cut down, Winston Rekert does a great job playing the role this time around it is just more limited this time around. The Wayne family had a lot of input into making this film and for good reason since this was John Wayne's first directing job and one of his best movies as well. As the sidekick to the Phillip's character Wayne's grandson Brendan Wayne was cast. Watch this with an open mind and I am sure your not only going to find some great acting and a good story but you are also going to find one of the better remakes to come out in some time, sure no one can replace "The Duke" but Phillips does a nice job playing the character and to me the film was a nice homage to the legend. If you enjoy a good western then I recommend picking this one up, you will not be disappointed.
Released by Lions Gate
*** 1/2 Out Of *****