The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy

I REALLY hate scripts that are about an area that the writer knows nothing about. The one that jumped right out at me was when they were going to cross the Brazos river in Granbury and they had to swim. I have a news flash, unless it was right after a heavy rain storm which by all the dust I highly doubt, you can probably walk across the Brazos without getting your ankles wet! Also, they rode horseback from Dallas to Granbury in one night, which is also HIGHLY unlikely since as the crow flies it has to be at least 70 miles. From downtown Fort Worth it is at least 45 miles.

The accents by the actors were so bad, and that goes for the Irish, southern, and the others that were unrecognizable.

What could have been a good movie was let down by bad acting,particularly by the Director/Actor. A terrible Irish accent and "hammy" at the best of times. Others weren't much better. I understand that this was a low-budget indie film and applaud the effort, but surely there's more acting talent than this. Apart from the acting, the events leading to the "main plot" do not get there until halfway through the movie and then fade away almost as quickly. What we are really watching is a movie about three bad guys on the run; and that could have worked,but didn't have enough character development to make us care.

This movie was boring and seemed to go nowhere. You keep waiting for the action to break out and it never does. It just kind of limps along the entire time. My husband gave up and went to bed. I stayed up and watched to the end thinking it would pick up at any time. It just never did. Rented it at Redbox, but felt completely ripped off even at $1.20. I would not suggest renting this unless you are completely bored and have watched everything else available. The acting was OK, not good or bad really, but that could have easily been overlooked with a decent story line. All the scenes just seemed very isolated from each other. The characters didn't really interact well either, it was very stilted.

Movie Review of "The Legend of Hells Gate" by GW "Bill" Johnson I just saw Tanner Bearden's Legend of Hells Gate: An American Conspiracy. He wrote it; directed it; and helped star in it along with Eric Balfour who also covers the ground he stands on. Star watchers should get a bright red permanent marker and put a big check next to these young men's names. Bearden a 28 year old young man is gifted along with his whole family as I found out. In Texas we would say; "He'll do to swim the river with". This movie has the look and ambiance of Lonesome Dove without vulgar insinuations.

Bill Johnson Flat Rock Crossing on Big Keechi Creek, Texas

"My name is not St. Helens, my name John Booth the assassin of Abraham Lincoln." Just outside Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas there is a cliff formation that is known as Hell's Gate. During the 1870's this place was home to notorious outlaws and crimes. When a young boy overhears a conversation involving the local bartender he thinks he found a way to get rich. He teams with two strangers in order to make it rich and famous. Being a huge history buff this movie seemed very interesting to me. It says based on a true story, but I'm not sure how accurate this actually is. I have been saying that the western genre has really fallen off in the last ten years. This one is still a definite B western, but it is much much better then most of the recent ones. The acting is iffy at best but the story keeps you watching and I was actually surprised at how much I was enjoying it. Overall, not a bad western at all. Very watchable and pretty entertaining. I give it a B.