Rancher 101

7.4 stars.

I don't know, I think this was a nice laid back rancher movie. A female movie star needs to learn how to look like a rancher, so she can land a leading role in an upcoming blockbuster film. He needs the money to keep the ranch afloat. The plot is as basic as they come, but the chemistry is far above average. Both actors are likable and believable, and that's half the battle.

The ranch is a nice place as a backdrop for a Hallmark type romance, so the story doesn't lack for majestic landscapes. The horses are nice, the acting is nice, the sets are good.

This is just a basic rancher meets city girl flick (in this case she's a well known actress - same difference). The chemistry makes this watchable.

Another day and another low budget Reel One Entertainment TV movie. This one is so barebone that even surpass "Love on the Reef" which IMO was the lowest budgeted ROE TV movie ever. The good news is that movie is technically fine. I actually liked music score - most of it was nice country music with the minority of signature ROE songs. They both blended into movie very well.

What I didn't like, and I took 1* for it is somehow fake location. It looks like 80%+ of the movie was shot at Dreamscape Ranch. They used real name for the movie which is actually good except ranch is not located in Montana, it's in BC, Canada. Why? Why would be a problem to say movie plot takes place in Canada just once in a time?

Cast is mostly fine. MacKenzie Porter was convincing as a city girl. I watched Toby Levins in the several Hallmark TV movies where he was supporting cast. This looks like him as the first time as a main actor. I really didn't like his accent, he sounded bad and fake.

Writing is all over the place. The movie starts like comedy (some 15-20 min), then there is some loose romance in the mid, and the last 30 min is drama. It looks like director and writer have never been on real ranch. At least they could ask somebody. I won't comment riding, because I'm not into it but I will comment Isabella's second day on ranch. You see, she was woken up really early by Hunter, and she had to shovel a lot of horse feed. I mean, really a lot of it. The very next day, she is completely fine, like nothing happened, no muscle sore, no complaining, I'm ready to rumble more. Really?! So, the city girl who didn't do any physical work, and doesn't have muscles for heavy physical lifting is just fine. It gets even more ridiculous as the next day she was lifting heavy hay bales, and again, tomorrow, nothing. Let me say again - somebody who never woke up really early, was "forced" to do heavy physical work, and is vegan on top of it, somehow is magically completely fine and fit. Even Walter complained to Hunter that his guest is doing too much physical work!

All in all, watch if you have nothing else but don't watch trailer if you plan to watch it as like every other ROE TV movie trailer, it shows everything.

I really liked this romance. The actors portraying the hero and heroine have genuine chemistry. MacKenzie Porter, who is country music singer, plays the movie star very well. Tony Levins plays the down-on-his-luck cowboy well.

I liked that they used a real ranch and used its real name in the movie. The scenery was beautiful.

I could totally see the cowboy and the movie star having their happily ever after. There could even be a plausible sequel for more conflict and tension between them.

The only thing that might have been better developed was the backstory of how the cowboy's ranch fell on hard times. Without knowing what went wrong, we're left to wonder how he'll be able to turn things around.

I also liked that the movie star didn't let him off the hook when he got angry at her for interfering. And he knew he'd messed up.