Aces 'N' Eights

Casper Van Dien stars in Aces 'N' Eights as a former gunslinger in Jeff Kober's band of thugs for hire who up and quits and decides to settle down and lead a peaceful life. Rancher Ernest Borgnine takes him in and life goes well.

That is until Kober's murderous band gets hired by William Atherton of the railroad and he wants a lot of ranches cleared out. And Kober is a man who enjoys killing to make that happen.

I have to say this was a strange western for someone who's seen more than his share. Most of the time if the plot involved the railroad coming through it was a good thing and it was bad guys who had insider knowledge of that happening trying to push people off their land. In some cases it was the railroad, most famously in the Tyrone Power classic Jesse James that was strong arming people off their property, but just killing them? After all, the railroad just wants a right of way, enough room to lay down their tracks.

Which made this western a rather dubious proposition for me. Still there's enough action to satisfy any western fan. There's also an adroit performance Bruce Boxleitner as one of Kober's men who plays a distinctly lone hand.

I've been watching western in my whole life mainly the classics and B-movies of fifties and sixties, but new productions using former actors to sell the picture like this is a crying shame, the plot is usual, however the Kober's gang massacre is absolutely senseless, killing for killing is totally lack of intelligence and reason, Carper Van Dien is a regular actor doesn't hold the picture, already Boxleitner has a decent acting together with Borgnine after all not enough among such mediocrity, finally the lack of beauty women in the story is another weak point, although in beginning has some they didn't participating of the movie itself and Deirdre Quinn isn't quite beauty and looks like a nun, anyway a bad movie!!

Far too much concentration on a relentless series of bloody, sadistic atrocities, committed by pantomime villains, against stock character, seemingly helpless farmers who are trying to resist a railroad land- grab. Even Borgnine, Boxleitner and Van Dien fail to lift this beyond the hackneyed, mundane and largely predictable horse opera which it patently is. Character development is shallow and unresolved, and the limited dialogue also limits any engaging plot development. Even the slight twist at the end, as regards the ultimate demise of the chief "badhat" comes across as a desperate, but ineffective ploy to at least try to depart from total predictability. Just about worth a watch on a rainy afternoon, but not if you've anything even remotely more interesting to do... which would not be hard to find.

Yes, sadly, we have a look into DVD Perdition, where ex-actors who used to be something are consigned to doing bad films.

This film has three guys who used to have name recognition- Casper Van Dien, Bruce Boxleitner and Ernest Borgnine. Hell, Ernie won an Oscar. (He's also 91 and still acting, that says a lot.)

The plot is that the railroad is coming through, and Ernest doesn't want to sell his land. The railroad hires a bunch of thugs, who used to know ranch hand van Dien. A bunch of clichéd western themes, you aren't going to mistake this for Deadwood, that's for sure.

The movie is plodding and slow, there is little chemistry between the characters. The ending is the typical showdown that John Wayne did 50 years ago and much better. Boxleitner could have been John Wayne 40 years ago, but maybe we've outgrown a need for John Wayne.

Awesome Western. I have been an Earnest Borgnine fan for many years. Now in his 90's Borgnine still has that twinkle in his eye. He has made many great movies that include The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen and McHales Navy and more too numerous to mention. In this one he is a ranch owner who killers employed by the railroad are trying to run off his land. Of course he says nuts to that and the shooting starts. Casper VanDien and Bruce Boxleitner are also awesome in this. Yes I recommend it. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 2/27/2021