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Touches You

Pretty Good

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 2001 and directed by Xavier Koller, "Cowboy Up" concerns rural California brothers in the tough rodeo business: Ely, the younger brother, is a banged-up bull rider (Marcus Thomas) while Hank is a rodeo clown/contractor (Kiefer Sutherland). The former is romantically interested in a vet assistant (Molly Ringwald) while the latter has his eyes on a rodeo barrel racer (Daryl Hannah). Melinda Dillon plays the brothers' mother at their ranch. Russell Means, Bo Hopkins and Pete Postlethwaite are also on hand.The film was meant to debut in theaters in 2000; and then early 2001. It was stuck on the shelf due to the distributor going bankrupt and was eventually released to video in late 2001. As an intended theatrical release, the film has polish, which can be observed in the haunting opening bull riding sequence. The story, however, is akin to the typical Lifetime flick, except mixed with stunning bull riding sequences. It's interesting seeing Ringwald 12-15 years after her halcyon years as a teen icon in the mid-80s (I much prefer her here as a woman). Despite the prevalence of country tunes on the soundtrack, the creators wisely throw in a couple of rock ditties, like the kinetic "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" (1974). The movie's decent, I generally enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend it, except to fans of the cast or rodeos. The Braxton Ranch in the movie is actually the abode of Gary Leffew, the Rodeo Hall of Famer. THE FILM RUNS 1 hour 45 minutes and was shot in Santa Maria, California, and Las Vegas. WRITER: James Redford. GRADE: C+ (5.5/10)

Might be some weak spoilers within. I'll try to be careful -I know next to nothing about rodeo life, bullriding, rodeo clowns or any of that stuff and that may have been a hindrance to the enjoyment of this film. Or maybe it helped as I've been reading that this film's on the unrealistic side. But that's okay, it's entertainment either way.The script was weak and it was disappointing to see the female roles downplayed so much - especially Daryl Hannah's because one of the things that hooked my interest about this movie was the possible conflict of brother against brother over a woman. But that part was never developed much. I think I would have enjoyed this more if the whole movie was about that. I'm still not sure what purpose Molly Ringwald's character served in this.But there are lots of good things about 'Cowboy Up'. I loved seeing a tough guy cowboy downloading stuff on a laptop. That really pleased my geeky self. The slow motion action sequences were wonderful as well. And while I don't know much about rodeo, I very much enjoyed the riding scenes.Anyway, On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give this a six. See it if you like Kiefer because he's wonderful in this. I love to see him in a good guy role like this.

OH come on...it wasn't THAT bad. I actually liked Keifer Sutherland in this role. He seemed more human and down to earth than anything I've seen him in lately. Not hyped up like he does when he plays a villian or in 24. Newcomer Marcus Thomas did a very good job. I was surprised to find out he was from Belgium!!Ok.. so it was not an accurate movie, which ones are...TRAINING DAY??? DARK BLUE???? Good god...8 SECONDS???!!!!And I LIKED Darryl Hannah in ths one. Even Molly Ringwald did the best she could. It definately needed more scenes like the one with Marcus Thomas and Pete Postlewaite. Ok, so Mr. Redford still has to work on writing skills, and character development, but this was still entertaining. No, its not JUNIOR BONNER but then that was a Sam Peckinpah film and ya can't get better then that!!

This is an interesting movie--with some casting problems. We find that there is a lot more to riding a bull than just being big or tough. Kiefer's character (brother to the lead) expands the stereotypical cowboy role because he is a sensitive, yet confident, thinking mans cowboy; full of compassion and depth. Molly Ringwald is waisted on a weak script. She plays a women who is supposedly a great catch but she has no patience, understanding, or sex appeal and is a poor listener. In addition, she looks at least 5 years older than Ely (her boyfriend). What do they have in common? What in the world was the attraction for these two people? In fact, all of the women's roles are written politically correct or safe and are therefore drab, boring, and unrealistic (they're too perfect). We never find out what Ms. perfect mom saw in the completely dysfunctional dad. It's hard to believe she could stand him long enough to have two kids . . . the movie shows that he had no redeeming qualities--whatsoever. Daryl Hannah is a fine actress but to long in the tooth to play the love interest of a man (Kiefer) nearly 2 inches shorter and 7 years younger than she is. Conversely, it's encouraging to see men and women closer in appearance and age--but this pair up just doesn't work--in the scene in the cafe Hannah looks old enough to be Ely's mom--which makes a later scene highly unlikely. All in all a good TV movie but comes up short when compared to other quality big screen cowboy fair like Urban Cowboy, The Electric Horseman, or The Grey Fox.I'll give it 3 out of 5 stars.