The Decoy

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 )

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.

After having watched The Decoy with its cast of absolutely no one you will recognize at all, I'm still wondering about what I looked at. Justin Kreinbrink who both directed and starred in The Decoy should have gotten himself a far more coherent story.

Some nasty outlaws shoot a miner and take over his mine for no particular reason other than their need for a headquarters. But aside from their usual crimes of outlawry, someone who has a reason for wanting to kill the town banker hires these guys to kill him and his wife. Their daughter happens to be married to Kreinbrink who is a deputy sheriff.

The patsy they decide to frame is a deaf mute foster son of the banker. The man is mute, but not stupid he won't write out any denial.

Justin, if someone gives you another crack at a western, make it one the audience will not be scratching its collective head after viewing.

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.

After reading the other reviews for this film I am of the opinion that the high markers are probably paid studio lackeys as the film I saw was absolutely dire, with wooden acting, lacklustre scripting and plodding predictable directing, one of the few plus points has to be the stunning scenery as this film features some stunning backdrops with great sweeping vistas and dramatic skies and wide open prairies, sadly when the most memorable thing in a film is the part featured behind the actors this has to be a warning sign as to the quality of the movie, all in all a thoroughly uninspiring addition to the western genre which even at the very reasonable price it can be obtained on DVD is best to avoid.