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Lone Rider
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (15th September 2008). |
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The Film
 Lou Diamond Phillips is one of those actors whose name everyone knows but hasn’t achieved the kind of celebrity that his name recognition seems to merit. He started out with some good dramatic performances in “La Bamba” (1987) and “Stand and Deliver” (1988), though I think the latter was more impressive as he managed not to be outshone by Edward James Olmos, no small feat. And then came the western action hit “Young Guns” (1988) that put him in a crew that was bound for success, but instead he seems to only show up in tons of direct-to-DVD/made-for-TV bombs, including the new “Lone Rider”. Phillips plays Bob Hattaway a former United States soldier returning home from the wars in ambiguous 19th century to his home town in Nevada where he gets in touch with old friends and family, but quickly discovers that his old friend Stu Croaker (Vincent Spano) is a land-tycoon out to buy up everything in their small town and control it all. Not only has he caught Hattaway’s father (Stacey Keach) up in a loan that will force him to give up their family home and store, but Croaker married Hattaway’s old flame. The tension builds until finally Hattaway and Croaker have to throw-down, have a shoot out and resolve this whole mess. I had hoped for something at least bad enough to be funny, but the only thing that made me even come near laughing is the fact that the cover to the DVD is nearly the exact mirror image of the other really terrible direct-to-DVD western “Aces N’ Eights” (2008). Everything from font to positioning is the same, which I guess helps make sense of how terrible "Lone Rider" is. The writing peaks at hokey and struggles to stay above bearable, though at times fails pretty terribly. It doesn’t help that most of the drama is basically recycled, meaning that the actors and director have to try and grind out an effort, making everything seem incredibly forced. Phillips acting seems to recognize that he doesn’t want to be there and that he knows that he could have done bigger things, but somehow his career became this, the "Lone Rider". However Phillips’ often pained or disinterested acting in the movie still manages to seem more realistic than Spano or Keach, who do their own fair share of pretty terrible acting. Add in some incredibly over-dramatic music and you have yourself a working ‘for-the-paycheck’ movie that draws in some big names knowing that they’ll increase the sales, allowing them to snag some money with little effort. The Directing follows in step with the acting and writing, there’s just nothing to say other than sub-plain. It’s not just unimpressive, its slightly less, everything from awkward beats staying on actors for too long to a bad sense of scope, especially in a scene where there’s an explosion that pretty much gets obscured, however is visible enough to know that something, indeed, did explode. Overall, even at around 80 minutes, the movie really stretches itself out way too far. All of the attempted character development just goes nowhere, there’s some incredibly bad death scenes which aren’t really even necessary. If anything "Lone Rider" is a shining example of how Phillips’ career is approaching the point of no return in venturing too far into bad direct to TV/DVD territory to be recovered.
Video
With a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, the transfer itself is fairly clean, though seems incredibly bland due to some combination of the mediocre lighting, bland color schemes or overall low quality production sense. There’s no real noticeable grain or dirt, but the directing and cinematography are so uninteresting that the cleanliness can’t really make up for anything.
Audio
In terms of sound, the English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound doesn’t do a whole lot for me. The quality of the sound was fine, but again it’s the in-film decisions that seem to bring it all down. The levels are fine, but I wish they would have changed the soundtrack that feels more like a collection of sound samples labeled ‘Drama/Western’ rather than an actual score. There’s some low quality sound production in terms of the sound effects though, the gun shots all sound barely as loud as cap guns. There are no optional subtitles available on this disc.
Extras
This Genius Products disc has not a lot in terms of extras featured in the set, other than three interviews and a couple of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First is an interview with actor Lou Diamond Phillips that runs for 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Phillips spends most of the first few minutes just summarizing the plot, which almost telegraphs how there’s not enough to say about the film that his summary is needed just to make the interview seem longer. There’s some odd talk about on set work, and how much he enjoyed working with Stacey Keach, but otherwise not too watchable unless you’re an LDP diehard, though how many of you there are left I have no idea. Next is an interview with Vincent Spano who I never had heard of before, but his interview runs for 7 minutes and 13 seconds. He spends a bit more time talking about his character and seems almost fixated with using the word ‘tension’ to describe all of the characterization. Nothing really interesting, though as with the other two interviews it’s spliced in with some behind the scenes footage and footage from the film, which helps to keep the otherwise boring interviews moving, at least visually. Finally, interview with Stacey Keach runs for 8 minutes and 4 seconds. Keach as a slow and quiet tone in real life that was kind of surprising, but at the same time is so calm that it almost puts me to sleep watching the interview since his tone is so soft. Keach talks some funny connections between himself and Phillips, making sure to bump his recent project in a new audio recording of the bible, but nothing really interesting here either. The startup bonus trailers included are: - “Lonesome Dove” runs for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. - “Aces N’ Eights” runs for 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Overall
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