The Derby Stallion

I really enjoyed this film. The acting was great and Zac Efron did some really nice work.I was drawn to this film because I ride horses and like racing. I didn't know much about Steeplechase before this movie. It is cool...looks pretty hard and a little dangerous but fun.

I also enjoyed Houston Jones character and his relationship with Zac's character, "Patrick". It reminded me of my relationship with my granddad.The parents were good too, and the girl that plays Jill, is hot! My mother liked the film too, and said she would recommend it to her friends to buy for their kids because its a family movie that she enjoyed watching with me. There are some surprises in it that I won't tell you. Randy's character is a good bad guy. I think you will like it as much as I did!

This movie exemplifies the American dream of the familial bond. The movie depicts the dream of the reality of how life is, where the parent controls the child and believes that the child wants to do a certain hobby because it is what the parent did, or wished to do.

The child then doesn't want to do what the parent forces the child to do, and then decides to go against the family and do what they want. Then the child becomes great at the hobby and the parents have a turn around after disagreeing and not supporting the child because of the whole disconnect that occurs when a child decides to do what they want for their own life.

The Parent then becomes involved in the Childs life, and they bond over the "death" of the broken dream of the parent, and apologizes for the disrespect and the mistreatment of the child, and begins to support the child in what they want to do. The parent becomes very remorseful to the child to ensure that the child is still apart of the parents life.

The reality life reality and the film, are completely opposite. The film depicts the dream of how life is to be with a family, and their children. It's the typical cliche "prophecy" or "calling" for a lack of better way to describe it. And this calling, is a straight up reality check for the parent because of how distant the child would be, and how much involvement the parent would have their child in their life, and how much involvement, control, and influence the parent will have in their Childs life. The parent doesn't want to be a stranger and be kicked out of the child's life because it will evidently hurt the parent, and the parent will have a spiral down turn, and eventually become very sickly; more so sickly, abusive, and/or psychotic

Great movie. Need more of these types of movies. Not the whole Prostitution of Hollywood films.

I am usually tolerant of horse movies. I don't expect the actors to be the best riders or horse handlers. I expect mistakes to be made and things to be wrong. I try to sit back and just enjoy the story. This is what I expected to do recently when I picked up a new horse movie called The Derby Stallion.

Well it was simply awful. The lead could not ride at all. I feel they could have found an actor with riding skills. Even worse was when they switched to the legs of a dark bay horse jumping when the lead horse was a bright chestnut. They should have taken the time to do the research and find the right people.

Overall I was not impressed with the way this movie was shot and put together. Some of the close-ups seemed too close and out of focus and actually made me dizzy. I feel a lot more could have been done to make this movie better starting with an actor who had real life horse experience.

I was on the set - even an extra - no I did not get paid - but the story is good and the actors are great. It's a movie folks. All the people behind the scenes worked hard, as well as all of the actors. And yes, Rusty is Rusty in all of the scenes. Contact Zion Farms if you do not believe me. And yes, the actors rode the horses as well. I heard that the main actors cowboy'ed the horses better than those of us who never rode horses before. It's a feel good movie - don't dissect it. Enjoy it. Three Billy's - how can you go wrong - sorry that Billy Preston could only be there for a short bit - but he wasn't feeling well.

Alcoholic horse trainer Bill Cobbs sees a great steeplechase rider in the unmotivated Zach Efron and trains him for the local derby.

It's the same sort of movie that has been made at least a couple of hundred times. It's filled with many of the incidents, like death, uncertain parents, the competitor who cheats, the decision not to compete, the last minute change of heart, et c. Etc. Clearly this is inended for the Young Adult market, the kids who have never seen any of these before. So it can be assessed pretty much on a checklist. The performances are good, especially Cobbs, one of those "plant your feet, look the other guy in the eye, and tell the truth" performers Visually it's a mix of ridiculous set design -- I've never seen stables that pristine, and I helped build one --and the camerawork is okay. It's one of those movies where you know exactly what is going to happen, and that's ok.