The Long Kill

Outlaw Justice is a fairly routine revenge western that was either a made for television movie or direct to video. With respect to what this is, I really enjoyed it. In this film we have some country music legends Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson who are to avenge the death of their friend (Waylon Jennings). Travis Tritt also appears . This film is on the lower budget end of the spectrum, but is fairly quick paced and action packed. Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson make a good team and their credibility is unquestionable. Overall, this is not the best movie (nor does it try to be), but as far as B movie westerns, there is not much here not to like.

I had not realised these singers acted too until this The basic plot has a lot of promise to be a classic enjoyable straight 'action western' with possible 'feel good' or comic possibilities as well. The singers have surprising screen presence and the production runs along quite well and logically until the last shootout But the violence was generally more graphic than I like or necessary, with the usual questionable American popular romanticisation and simplification of vigilante-ism or ' a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do '. Some bits made no sense or were clearly unrealistic or fantastic so the film seemed undecided between being a straight classic western or a 'feel good' Good Guys Always Win and Are Heroes to Boot show The final scenes were rather illogical in terms of behaviour and spoilt an otherwise consistent plot. Not much more is needed to make this an 'above average' film so the unfulfilled promise is disappointing and surprising given the actors involved

I've seen the singers before. Willie is always golden... Kris & Johnny Cash did a real groaner about the last days of Frank and Jesse James, but this is MUCH BETTER than that.

Willie is always fun to watch, because his timing is so good, and Kris is a great outlaw in this one. Kris just looks at people and they think twice about tangling with him.

Waylon is their buddy who gets gunned down like a dog at the beginning, and he narrates a lot after that. (Shades of the Dukes of Hazard.) If you like these guys, you'll LOVE them in this movie. The bad guy is really bad. The "bad guys" -- i.e. "outlaws" -- are really good, and the dialog just rolls along. Not a dull moment -- even Travis Tritt is pretty god, altho he may not be "ten food high and bulletproof." Rick Tombstone, AZ

Initially, this movie seemed like it would be just another bad flick among the ranks of western movies. Surprisingly however, I found this film to be pretty enjoyable. For me, it beat many of the other country star movies made to promote their music. (For example Stagecoach (1989)) While it isn't perfect, it is a quite wholesome and a good way to celebrate the musicians. One of my main problems however, was the advertisement to include Waylon Jennings when he had very little screen time.

Country singing legends Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Travis Tritt form their own posse to go after Sancho Gracia who has killed one of their friends, Waylon Jennings. Even though Tritt is a sheriff now and the other two are kind of mellowed out outlaws, they all ride to get even for Jennings and administer their own brand of Outlaw Justice.

I found elements of such big screen western classics as The Searchers, Ride the High Country and Valdez is Coming all mixed in with the plot structure of Outlaw Justice. All of these guys do fine jobs and create some interesting characters. But the holes in the story as well as the lack of credible motivation for some characters leave Outlaw Justice really lacking.