Edge

I'm a fan of Shane Black but the writing in this one is a big mis-step. No wonder why it wasnt picked up for a series

I have always been a huge fan of the George G Gilman paperback westerns from the 80's.I have collected many of them over the years. I never thought that their would be a movie based on the stories, and directed by the great Shane Black. The film totally does justice and its full of shootouts, action and revenge - just like the books. The plot is simple - Josephia Hegdge's (Edge) brother is murdered by the son of a powerful man and 'Edge' rides into town to settle the score.

A true western icon finally given a live action movie. Great performances from everyone. A total of 61 books in total were printed plus 3 spin off's where he teamed up with Adam Steele (another George G Gilman character - perhaps he might get a movie too?) and some later Kindle stories. A massive thank you to the film makers from a true fan.

I love westerns, even as shmaltzy as John Ford got, I still loved 'em. And I can even find things to like in the post-mod fun houses that Tarentino puts out.

But this show is barely watchable unless you watch it PIP with "Blazing Saddles" at the same time. The violence is at times innovative but often gratuitous and just vulgar, the female characters are undeveloped, and could we please just put away the strong silent protag with a mysterious past. Toshiro Mifune did it best which is why Leone stole it, but put it in a jar labelled "Eastwood" and forget it.

As with many modern westerns I wonder how they get made. The meeting scene near the end where landowners are getting orally served during the meeting, I think I get a clue what happened to fund this film.

Worst of all, I can't believe Shane Black and not his pre-teen grandson wrote this script. Bad bad puns, unnecessary dialogue, tedious villains. Cmon, Shane.

Was this a community service project to make up for parking tickets?

I saw this on Amazon Prime under the title EDGE THE LONER. It's the pilot episode of a would-be western TV series, directed by Shane Black and with a decidedly adult edge: this episode is chock-full of highly stylised combat and bloody battles, with fingers being blown off and bloody squib hits throughout. It makes a refreshing change to the usual sanitised stuff we see on TV.

The predictable storyline (about one man's revenge) is the worst thing about this show. However, it makes up for that with Black's strong direction and the well-choreographed nature of the frequent action. The final shoot-out is particularly well handled and enjoyable to watch. Cast-wise, Max Martini (PACIFIC RIM) has little chance to show charisma as the lead, but there are dependables like William Sadler and Ryan Kwanten playing the baddies, so it's not all bad. If this test pilot does get picked up for a full series it has plenty of potential for greatness.

Why not make it available? Why would you waste the efforts of the crew? Is it because you care more about profits and less about art? Come on imdb/amazon, at least let me ask a faq... tease.