One Ranger

Except for Thomas Jane's ridiculously over-the-top Texas accent and his cowboy hat that didn't fit, the movie's not all that bad.

A dialogue coach and a properly fitted hat could have turned this from a 5 into a 7 rather easily.

The premise was a bit goofy, but the action made up for it--sort of. There are a lot of flicks out there now that are worse.

Malkovich was hilarious in a part where he channeled Billy Bob Thornton's "Karl" from "Sling Blade" sort of transformed into a British intelligence agent, but it wasn't supposed to be funny. It just was.

Overall, a pretty good way to kill an hour and a half. Not great,, but not bad.

This shows why not to make a movie from the first draft. If the writers had done a little work on this, it could have been quite good. I don't know how Texas Rangers dress, nor do I care. MI-6 enlists him to help catch or kill a terrorist who's planning mass destruction in London. The terrorist is of course Irish, his main henchman is a Russian who is nearly indestructible. The fights he has with the ranger are ridiculously over the top. And repetitive. The ranger constantly, and without for the most part, his own gun, blasts heavily armed terrorists away again and again. Malkovich, for the first time in any role, sleep walks through this. Guess he needed a few bucks. Direction is pedestrian. This could have been so much better.

So, fair disclaimer ahead of time, I'm a pretty big fan of most of Thomas Jane's stuff. He's had some great roles that I really enjoyed, and I hoped that this movie would be another chance for him to shine.

Unfortunately, it really wasn't a chance for anyone to shine at all, not even John Malkovich.

Not exactly sure what I expected, I guess I just expected a decent action movie with a Texas Ranger chasing after a criminal. You know, normal stuff. What we got was a weird knock-off of Walker Texas Ranger with a bad script, acceptable fight scenes, and a lot of cliché lines that didn't fit the movie at all. It's like an AI took a bunch of segments from a handful of the most popular action movies and just slapped it all together to create this .... I'm not even sure what to call it. It's just a bunch of oddly disconnected scenes that don't make a lot of sense and are stitched together.

I would also like to point out how ridiculous the gun-play was. Because after realizing half-way through that the story was a bust, I thought maybe things can be somewhat redeemed with a few good gun battles. However, the directors of this movie clearly decided to roll with an emphasis on flashy, and completely ignore believable. There are several scenes where dozens of rounds are fired from handguns that can only hold half that amount. Rifles are given to the main characters from "tactical/strike teams" without sights. Rocket launchers are used on people like it's some kind of video game. Characters using machine guns one-handed, as if recoil doesn't exist and physics don't matter. It's like watching a bargain-bin 80's action movie from the local dollar store, but without the charm, awesome hairstyles, cool cars, and mirrored aviators worn by the main character.

Anyhow, I'm done wasting my time with this review, already wasted far too much time watching this movie. Swing, and a miss. Better luck next time, Thomas Jane.

Alex Tyree (Thomas Jane) is the titular One Texas Ranger. He takes down a buggy full of criminals but one gets away. He is recruited by Agent Jennifer Smith (Dominique Tipper) from British Intelligence to retrieve Irish terrorist Declan McBride (Dean Jagger) who is imprisoned in Mexico. Declan escapes and is set to blow up London.

This starts off bad. His banter with Tom is supposed to be fun and endearing to the audience. I did not find that to be the case. His gun battle with the buggy four starts out good, but there is too much bad writing. Why doesn't he take his horse? How does a bad guy double back to take Tom hostage? At least, it's still in Texas. Once Agent Smith shows up, the movie goes down a bad rabbit hole. First, she's a non-descript British Intelligence. The writing should be more specific. Writer/director Jesse V. Johnson probably thought that it would be fun to have a cowboy and a British gentleman team up. I can see that pitch. I don't see it on the screen.

I stumbled upon "One Ranger," a 2023 action thriller featuring Thomas Jane and John Malkovich, without knowing much about it. However, with such talented actors attached to the project, I was eager to give it a chance. To my delight, the storyline was a classic police versus criminal tale, which I found entertaining despite its familiar tropes. Writer and director Jesse V. Johnson deserves credit for crafting an engaging script that kept me hooked from beginning to end. Throughout the 95-minute runtime, the pacing was just right. The film struck a perfect balance between action and character development, which made for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The cast was well-chosen, with Thomas Jane and Dominique Tipper delivering strong performances. The only minor downside was John Malkovich's peculiar delivery, which was distracting at times and made it difficult to take his role seriously. The action sequences were well-executed and complemented the movie perfectly. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by "One Ranger" and would recommend it to fans of the genre.