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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent but underrated film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I love looking at Sam Elliott regardless because he is a very hot sexy looking man, Tom Selleck on the other hand never did it for me because of his sheepish grins which were a turn off. This is a western not an episode of Magnum PI Mr Selleck. The movie suffers from a really bad score ,cliches and the 80's A team kind of feel where the bad guys get knocked out in one punch, the bad guys always miss when shooting at the good guys and the good guys who always hit their targets in one shot even on horseback and of course never get hurt or show any signs of bruises even when being thrown on the ground or blown up. In one scene Selleck is riding a horse alongside a train and a stick of dynamite blows up right under his horse and he gets right back up to not only grab the underside of the train car but climbs up the side of the train no worse for wear. The music is this typical disneyesque western schlock no doubt to make it more family friendly. In my opinion, it makes you just want to change the channel. It's also hard to not groan when Katherine Ross is on screen with her real life hubby Sam ELliott, She plays his girlfriend or fiancée I think which also makes it less believable since they give each other these smarmy looks as if to say "after we shoot this scene lets go get drunk and do the nasty".I think Selleck and Elliott are just eye candy for this movie to no doubt let gay guys and straight women have their fantasies. The rest of the cast including old time western stars ben johnson and harry carey jr are simply along for the usual ride of chewing up the scenery. Its too bad they couldn't have made it more gritty and left out the sap. Lamour wrote some good westerns but unfortunately added romantic aspects to them that IMO don't belong. Frontier romance is portrayed so badly in movies with sap thats why i hate it. Good thing they don't make western like this crap anymore. They need to be gritty like unforgiven or josey wales. You can have women but you cant make it sappy. 3/10

Sometimes I think of a good western as a conventional plot, with slight variations, and having the merit of doing it in the best way possible. Applying those standards "The Shadow Riders" scores quite well. Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott are the ideal heroes, playing two brothers who fight on different sides during the civil war.Just listening to their dialog is half the fun of the film. Katharine Ross is beautiful and Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Junior ( remember the John Ford films?) are welcome additions to an already excellent cast. The story is from Louis L'Amour and follows the character of his books, predictable but entertaining. The musical score brings to mind the song "The Battle of New Orleans". An unusual scenery with vivid colors and a seashore that looks a lot like California even though it is in Texas, this western is not outstanding, but very enjoyable

Being a huge fan of Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot in westerns, I have to say that I was underwhelmed with the show. I actually bought the DVD just because it had Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot AND was a Louis L'Amour story. I had not heard of it but figured I couldn't go wrong. While the combination of Selleck, Elliot and L'Amour should have been golden, they turned out to be brass. The production value was very "television" (it was made for TV). It is what it is in that regard. However the action sequences were (IMHO) amateur. The hero knocks out the bad guy with one punch. The bad guys never see the hero's sneaking through the bushes in broad daylight. It just had a typical 80's TV show feel to it. I still felt it was worth the purchase for Selleck and Elliot even if the story and production didn't support them very well.

Four of the best all time best western actors performing with Tom Selleck and Catharine Ross at their best -- Harry Carey, Jr., Ben Johnson, Geoffrey Lewis and Sam Elliot -- make the best of a Louis L'Amour story. Purists may be put-off by the geographical inaccuracies; there is no Baffin Bay or Converse County, Texas. The location looks more like the California coast than Texas.