The Old Way

Finally the world is treated to a Nicolas Cage western. It is full of clichés and follows the typical western tropes yet is always engaging.

This may be billed as Nic Cage's first western however Ryan Kiera Armstrong runs off with the full movie. She is exceptional as a Mattie Ross type character who seeks revenge for a loved one. Her chemistry with Cage saves the movie from mediocrity.

There are a few good supporting characters with Noah Le Gros making a decent enough villian (despite not convincing entirely) and Clint Howard playing Eustice, a prophet of doom character, straight out of The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.

You watch The Old Way and go 'well that's from that movie and from that western' but The Old Way has enough charm (especially in Armstrong) to get it over the line.

Stumbling upon the 2023 Western movie "The Old Way" by random chance here in 2023 and seeing that the movie had Nicolas Cage in the leading role, I have to say that I opted to sit down and watch it.

Usually I am not overly keen on Western, lest it be the good old classics with Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. But every now and again when I stumble upon a Western that seems to have potential to be entertaining, then I will sit down and watch it. And thus it seemed with "The Old Way", from writer Carl W. Lucas and director Brett Donowho.

The storyline in "The Old Way", was actually good. It was a pretty straight forward script and storyline, that had that classic Western feel to it. So writer Carl W. Lucas sure managed to pen down something good and entertaining for director Brett Donowho to bring to the screen.

"The Old Way" does have a good cast that include the likes of Nicolas Cage, Shiloh Fernandez, Clint Howard, Abraham Benrubi, Craig Branham, Boyd McCallister, Noah Le Gros, Corby Griesenbeck, and others. I will say that the cast ensemble in the movie definitely put on good performances and carried the movie quite well.

Something that definitely added to the overall of the movie was the atmosphere. They managed to make "The Old Way" look and feel like a proper Western movie, and I liked that.

My rating of "The Old Way" lands on a six out of ten stars. It is a movie well-worth watching, especially if you enjoy Westerns of the old classic formula.

This entire production felt like a high-school drama class level, budget and all. Cage basically is sleepwalking his paycheck, but little Ryan Kiera Armstrong steals the spotlight with her charisma and flair for acting. The writing was your typical seen-it-before predictable and cliched revenge Western offering up nothing new for this genre, that felt quickly and lazily written. Some of the dialogue was cheesy to the point of cringe. The directing was weak and lacked any urgency in almost every scene. Even the sets and settings felt cheap and unconvincing, and lacked any authentic Western feel. A little bit of dust and tumbleweed blowing through town would've gone a long way getting to that Western feel. Even the normally comfortable 95 min runtime felt longer with poor pacing and the underwhelming narrative. It's a generous 5/10 from me, all for the young Armstrong's impressive performance.

A nice throwback to my favourite genre of movie...the western.

I would love to see a spree of good quality westerns hit the big screen, with The Old Way being much better than most of the westerns released over the last few years.

Cage is Cage except with a little bit more, you can see he's enjoying playing the gunslinger role. The kid, Ryan, gives one of the better child actor performances I've seen, underplaying the sociopath role nicely.

A few more gunfights would have added to the fun but otherwise there was enough to ge my western juices flowing.

Would definiately recommend especially for western fans but don't start comparing it to Josey Wales or The Searchers for example :)

This is both a typical Nick Cage move and a solid Western. It's an unlikely combo, but welcome nonetheless.

The plot is traditional: one act of violence leads to another, until our protagonists are led into a search for vengeance. The twist is that they're a father and his very young daughter.

Cage does a satisfactory job as the emotionless killer who's not sure how to be a dad. Ryan Armstrong steals the show as his precocious daughter, who never bats an eye at danger.

It's all fairly predictable, but good fun. The supporting performances are flavorful, especially Noah Le Gros as the villain and Nick Searcy as the crusty old marshal. My biggest complaint: I wish the film had been longer, and given us more time with these people.

This is very much like the better Westerns that were cranked out by the dozens in the 1950s. Wish we had more of them today.