Terror on the Prairie

If you expected Gina Carano or Matthias Hues to kick ass or Nick Searcy to act, you will be sorely disappointed. Instead you will get Carano as a mother of two sitting in a lone house waiting for her husband when a band of sadistic ex soldiers come and attempt to capture her. I don't know how military service was back then, but five armed men should have done the job in five minutes. Instead, they try to wiggle themselves into the house, trick the woman, wait her out, convince her, etc.

That's the entire film. It feels more like a really bad date than a western. And poor Hues. How the mighty have fallen...

I love westerns and wanted to love this one but, like the previous film Shut In, there are just far too many stupid choices and, in this case, bad shots, So many bullets fired, so few targets hit. Frustrating.

I love what the Daily Wire is trying to do and I loved "What is a Woman?", but this movie is bad. Every stereotypical situation from every western is used here. Revenge, sins coming back to haunt, extremely terrible and unrealistic shooting, unnecessary plot twists to exploit extreme violence. Did Gina Carano even say more than 25 words the entire movie? Nick Searcy was outstanding in his performance, but everyone else was blah. Three of the four movies put out by DW have the same theme and tone. Guns are good, women are strong, bad guys get it in the end. I love all of those things but hope for some better creativity in future attempts by DW.

This was...very slow. Very very slow. Even by 1970's western standards, it's slow. It seems to be the trend now for westerns to move at a snail's pace. If you compare it to "The Power of the Dog", they're about even though this movie has some action sequences, they both dwell on things a lot longer than they should. In "The Power of the Dog" they tried to be profound, and though they didn't achieve that goal, this movie wasn't even trying to be profound.

The lighting was shockingly bad. About as bad as the acting. Sound design and set dec was fine. Directing was lackluster. (For example, there are some shots that get punched in on with an insert to make sure you don't forget a key piece of exposition...and I do always prefer exposition that is shown rather than said, but at least work it into the shot you're using and for God's sake, don't return to the same shot once it's done.)

I mean, I guess if it's on in the background while you do something else, it's fine. Please don't ever give Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone lines in a movie ever again though.

Good as westerns go, but, seriously, way too many missed opportunities to just justifiably shoot them and no explanations or excuses not to.

I suppose that's standard for movies, but I keep hoping for better.