Dakota's Summer

This movie had a lot of connections for me... I went with a cowgirl in college... At BYU... Her family was well off and had 40,000 acres... If you have ever ever ridden or like horses... Then this is the movie for you... I found it very romantic... And it had a very touching family center... I would say this is like a Hallmark movie... On steroids... It even has steers... I thought the camera work was excellent... The directing very good... And the acting exceptional... I don't know whether the girls really did the riding or not... But it was seamless... I might say that it was a big ad for Dodge trucks... So you'd better like Dodge trucks...

I looked forward to seeing this movie, as a fan of the original I was looking forward to seeing the gang in action again. However the gang wasn't to be seen, the only two original characters are Madison who now appears to be the boss, and Walker who appeared only briefly in the original as the man in the stable who Ida thought was her Dad. The main character is 17year old Dakota, played by a 22 year old actress Haley Ramm who walks out on her family after finding out she is adopted to find her birth parents. The character of Terrence Parker is replaced by Austin Rose played by Keith Carradine. The main missing ingredient is of course Bailee Madison although more than compensated by the inclusion of young Jade Pettyjohn who plays Summer Jennings a troubled youngster from a foster home who tells tall tales about her none existent family but manages to tug at a few heartstrings towards the end. All in all an enjoyable movie and well worth watching.

I like the first movie way better than this one. There are way to many obvious noticeable difference between this movie & the first movie. Almost all the actresses & actors are different when they should have kept the same actresses & actors especially Bailee Madison. The animals are awesome & beautiful as always but they really should have kept the actresses & actors the same as much as possible & then this movie would have been way better than it is. The first movie I rated a 10 & this movie I rated a 1.