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As Good As It Gets

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The first must-see film of the year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I've been watching western in my whole life mainly the classics and b-movies of fifties and sixties...but new productions using former actors to sell the picture like this is a crying shame...the plot is usual but the Kober's gang massacre is absolutely senseless,killing for killing is totally lack of intelligence and reason...Carper Van Dien as a regular actor don't hold the picture..already Boxleitner has a decent acting together with Borgnine after all not enough among such mediocrity and finally the lack of beauty women in the story is another weak point...although in beginning has some they didn't participating of the movie itself and Deirdre Quinn isn't quite beauty and looks like a nun...anyway a bad movie!!

Local railroad boss William Atherton sends hired killers Jeff Kober and Bruce Boxleitner to get rid of pesky landowners like Ernest Borgnine, who refuse to sell out. Complicating things for Atherton is progressive thinking railroad executive Jack Noseworthy and Borgnine's hired hand Casper Van Dien.A competent cast of familiar character actors try hard, but this is pretty much done in by the extreme familiarity of the material (see Once Upon A Time In The West) and the fact that the script focuses on too many characters at once, resulting in a lot of half-formed characterizations, sort of like a television series highlight reel.As usual with director Craig R. Baxley, it's well made and the action scenes are expertly handled. However, Baxley (as well as most modern filmmakers) seems to have left out the nuances that made many of the older westerns true classics.One thing I could never understand about these type of westerns is the railroad's desire to to take the whole ranch in order to lay a single five-foot wide track. Didn't those wackos ever hear of an easement?

This above-average but violent made-for-television western pits the villainous land-hungry railroad against defenseless small-time ranchers whose lands lay on the route sought by the railroad. Stuntman/action director Craig R. Baxley helms this exciting little B-movie horse opera with flaws to spare. All the bad guys sport long white dusters. "Guardian of the Realm" lenser Yaron Levy's color photography constantly thrusts you into the thick of the gunfire, and the hand-held camera work lends a sense of verisimilitude to the action that enhances this oater. As the protagonist Luke Rivers, Casper Van Dien is actually tolerable for a change, and the beard gives him a lot of maturity. Late in the action, he puts on a poncho and vaguely resembles Clint Eastwood. Basically, Van Dien plays a gunslinger who has tried to hang up his six-gun and reform himself. Naturally, the villains compel him to strap on his hog-leg one more time. The sturdy cast includes Bruce Boxleitner as a believable gunfighter. Ernest Borgnine of "The Wild Bunch" plays one of the foremost ranchers--Prescott--that the greedy, murderous railroad has been harassing about his land. These villains don't beat about the bush. When they embark on their reign of terror, expect to either wince or grimace at the results. "Sugarland Express" star William Atherton is Howard, an unscrupulous local railroad official who displays no qualms against killing to make a point. Of course, the devious Chicago-based railroad company doesn't want to pay a penny more for the land."Aces 'N Eights" springs a couple of surprises along the way without violating any of the formulaic conventions of westerns. The Dennis Shryack and Ronald M. Cohen screenplay observes all the clichés and then wields them with style. For example, D.C. Cracker, the Bruce Boxleitner gunfighter is reminiscent of Ben Johnson's gunfighter in "Shane." Jack Noseworthy of "Breakdown" stands out as a member of the railroad who has come to negotiate a peaceful settlement between the railroad and the landowners. The gunfights are noisy but not bloody. The treacherous hired guns working for the railroad terrorize and murder land owners and their wives to scare them into selling out. The sign of a good movie is that the characters change over the arc of the narrative, and three characters alter their activities by fade-out. The finale is a well-staged gunfight between the heroes and the villains with a surprisingly conclusion. If you enjoy westerns like those that George Montgomery and Randolph Scott made, you'll probably enjoy "Aces 'N Eights."

We love westerns and wish there were more of them; but this one was made by people who lack the good sense of a goat.The story has been told a hundred times about the brave ranchers and settlers trying to hold out against an abusive takeover of their land at unfair compensation. Almost all previous movies were better than this sorry mess. The story is absolutely ruined by the emptyheadedness of today's talent-free film-makers -- who refuse to learn anything from the greats of yesteryear.To begin with, the picture substitutes excessive violence in place of a good story. The story is actually a muddled mess at best. They use all of the born-stupid techniques that spoil so many recent pictures: bad photography, dreadful editing, wrong-headed camera shots, and one of the new computer-generated musical scores that never ceases to annoy -- and never lets up. Music is supposed to enhance the action, not detract from it.If you love westerns, skip this stinker. Perhaps Genius Pictures which made it will fade away.