The Decoy

THE DECOY is one of those independent productions, made by obvious newcomers, but it doesn't have all the usual flaws that sink most such films. It has a definite story, it has adequate acting, the photography is very good, the hero and the bad guy are both formidable men, and the background music isn't overdone. This is a DVD New Release, so people will be looking here to see if it's worthwhile. I don't know where all the 10's come from, as there's no way this film is that good --- even if you're the filmmaker's mother.

The last film we saw at a theater was Warner's trashing of J K Rawlings much-loved and excellent book, Order of the Phoenix. In comparing THE DECOY with PHOENIX, consider that PHOENIX (as made by Warners) had no story, certainly no acting was allowed by the director, the photography was dreadful, and the wall-of-sound overbearing musical score was just a mess. I rated Phoenix a "1" because the scale doesn't go any lower. THE DECOY is 4 times better -- in all regards.

If you have the opportunity, give THE DECOY a chance. Remember, this isn't "Decoy 3 -- the Shootout" or any such nonsense. It's original. If your expectations aren't overblown by the foolish "10" scores here, you might just enjoy the film on its own terms.

Its about time somebody did a western with a bit of grit to it. I was at the premiere, and I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I will not go into discussion on form and function because we could argue this till the cows come home. But what I will say that its about time someone did a good western. This is America, is it not? Why are we so afraid to explore our rebellious side and enjoy characters that are stoic and bravely heroic. Can we take a break from problems in the middle east, political scandal, and the rest of the crap and remember that once, we had men (and women) who rode horses, shot guns and saved the day. We have some bad- A** roots, I personally for one would like to celebrate them. I believe America is ready for a western. I believe America is ready for this western. Give them some more time, money and distribution and these guys will take the country by storm. How do I know this, because I caught a glimpse of it in the theater. Was the film the most perfect piece ever created, no, was it thoroughly entertaining? I will respond with a resounding YES.

( And Entertainment is what makes money in the ENTERTAINMENT industry in case we all forgot )

I wrote a review of this right after it came out, but too late to beat, at the time, the two people hired by the directors mom to call it an Oscar effort. Where did it go? Hmmmmm, anyway studio lackeys here it is again. This is tripe. It is done by a bunch of nobody's with almost no money and even less talent. If I was Tara, Justin's wife, I would have flogged him for not letting me star in his stupid attempt at a motion picture. She probably did not want to ruin her chances elsewhere, because if you go down the list of "stars" in this rubbish, they never worked again. The story, music, actors (term used loosely), everything just makes you want to hurl. I have never seen a bigger waste of time or money. Thank goodness it only cost me a dollar at the local rental store. Did I watch it all? No, after the ridiculous killing of the miner that nobody could figure out, and then some really poor acting, I showed my player mercy and allowed it to spit that sht out. Even graded on a curve this tripe gets something below an F.

When his in-laws are viciously murdered by a gang of thugs, a young deputy is ordered to escort his mute friend, forced to take the rap by the gang, to Tucson for trial and ending up having to face the real killers along the way.

The Decoy is a real-life decoy sent to video stores to lure you away from better films! It's talky, illogical, slow, and ultimately very boring.

There's some good costumes, sets, and photography but nothing else is good about this vanity project from writer/director/producer/star Justin Kreinbrink, who apparently had too much money on his hands.

They used to make westerns like this, that were under an hour long. Trim this of about half it's length and you might have something watchable.

I've seen a preview of this Western. It is definitely a low budget effort - but made with a lot of heart. First off and worthy of immediate mention are the locations. This looks and feels like a Western. The acting is better than average at this level and I really liked the guy who played Martin. What perhaps could be improved with this picture is the work in post. The editing could be a big sharper, the sound mix and little richer and some more compositing and filtering could really bring to life some excellent shots. But what of the story? Actually the underlying plot is quite good. A mute man is framed as a 'decoy' to take the heat for a murder - all to cover up a bank robbery. His friend the sheriff must then escort him to the hanging. But the film is a little bit slow in getting going. I'd have preferred it if it had featured more of this journey and beefed up the conflict between this two friends / adversaries. Even if this meant we saw some of the preamble in flashback. All in all - I'll be checking out other films from these guys as this first feature shows promise and grit.