Angel and the Bad Man

Naturally, those who have practically deified John Wayne will not look with favor on any remake of his films, but this handsome color version has much more authentic period flavor than the original one of simple Hollywood hokum. Since I was never a great fan of Wayne's and was only favorably impressed by one performance of his (as the outright racist and sadistic bastard in "The Searchers") I can judge this film on its own merits without referring to Wayne's earlier version.

Phillips is convincing in the role of the hard-bitten gunny who unwillingly reforms when his head is turned by the esteem of a good woman. It gradually develops that his heart is eventually turned, too. Now that he has matured he actually achieves more gravitas than in some of his better known younger roles. The supporting roles are well-drawn, especially (Sam) Winston Reckert and the nasty one-eyed piece of work (Laredo) aptly played by an almost unrecognizable Luke Perry.

Nobody does it better. I repeat, NOBODY, does it better than The Duke. Don't bother watching this until you can see it for free. John Wayne is The Ultimate Cowboy! Nobody does it better! Nobody ever did it better! Nobody ever will do it better! To try and copy him is a fools errand.

If you wanna watch LaBamba, Lou Diamond Phillips is the perfect choice. If you wanna see teenage cowpunks go bad and shoot up town after town, he can get the job done. If you wanna see teenage punks screw up in high school and make the teacher look like an idiot, he's pretty good at that, too.

Remake a John Wayne film?!?!? NO WAY!

Having seen both movies I would take this movie as the better one. True, John Wayne is a great actor as I am a fan,but the difference between the two movies is taking out "the Horseshit and Gun-smoke". This movie have more feelings in it. The moral of the story is what it was all about. There were many changes in this movie that made it different than the original..Lou Diamond Phillips did a great job and Deborah Kara Unger did a better job as "Temperance". T I don not agree with the critics given this movie anything below 6 stars, as a matter of fact I would give it a 9 or maybe even a 10. It was a movie that is rarely seen nowadays without all the sex,profanity. The rating is PG-13. If thay had the rating in 1947 it would have been rated "R".

Not only is this a bust, a grandchild of the great Duke Wayne plays the sidekick Randy in the film. By no means is this an endorsement by the Wayne family. If it was you'd be seeing an actual verbal or written endorsement by the licensing agent for John Wayne. And if you think this one is bad, wait until you see the remake of True Grit which is supposed to be in the works. It's almost like the Hollywood writers were all replaced with remake happy zombies.

All you see these days are sequels or bad remakes of past classics. As the other commenter forgot to say it is already free to watch since it was a straight to TV release, that's how bad it was. Not even worthy of the big screen. I have to say this is the worse the Hallmark Channel has ever done.

No one, and I repeat no one, can do a John Wayne movie other than John Wayne. I'll make a suggestion to anyone who thinks they can do a remake of any film done by Duke Wayne. Forget it... you'll lose your shirt. This is not even worth a $.99 download release.

I concur with with bkoganbing "The Wayne Family Seal Of Approval". Imitation is often the sincerest form of flattery.

Anyone who is a fan of John Wayne and expecting a better version than his will be disappointed. But, if you are a fan of the Western Genre and of Lou Diamond Phillips, then you will be satisfied with this remake.

Lou Diamond Phillips and Luke Perry do a good job with their parts. Additionally, while Deborah Kara Unger is not as attractive as Gail Russell in the original, she does fit the part of a Quaker more so. She does a decent job in her role.

The standouts of this film are Lou Diamond Phillips, Winston Rekert (The Marshal), and Don Thompson as The Doc. Most of the supporting players are mediocre, but there are a few standouts, particularly, Gary Chalk as Steve Carson and Brendan Wayne as Randy. The other interesting part of this movie is the well done and fitting song sung (presumably) by Jennifer Copping (Maggie).

The sets and the scenery also looked very good.

I'd also recommend the remake of Red River with Bruce Boxleitner. A practical shot-for-shot remake of Wayne's original. Red River is one of my top ten favorites of Wayne's and I enjoyed this TV Remake.