6 Guns

A through and through western revenge drama. Being filmed in 2010 do we expect more than we do from a classic like Hang 'Em High? Yes we do, and the film is lacking Clint Eastwood. Nonetheless taken at face value it's an hour and 30 minutes of overwrought entertainment.

The woman protagonist who's family has been murdered, of course learns gun craft in less than the time it takes to bake a cake.

Nice 20th century coins in the poker scene, BTW. The sheriff is a decent actor and gives the movie a bit of character, the bounty hunter is a stern father figure but is reaching. Almost all else is stilted and seems forced to a greater or lesser extent. Anyway, "bottles don't shoot back"..

I watch a lot of movies and have probably seen all modern westerns. I have also been a homeless young person and was raised on the streets so I know what is going on out there. I really bought into this one. The characters were believable. Sure, they don't show the whole mourning process of the woman who lost her family. No movie does. I wouldn't change a word of this movie and I would recommend it to any western buff. Especially if you look for "real" in a movie. The actors were brilliantly cast. The bad guys really fit the part, with different levels of sensitivity and hardness. The director has a great vision. I'd like to see other things this writer director and actors have done. Western lovers, watch this movie.

Soo... What we have here. Typical low budget movie with typical western theme of revenge.

Action: You get your share of shootout, no worries about that. Though pace of the movie is slow.

Plot: 2 dimensional. Stereotypical. Nothing original.

Acting: Almost non-presented.

What we learn from the movie: 1) Sage Mears is beautiful. VERY beautiful. 2) She will never get an Oscar. NEVER. 3) To look as cool western hero, you must try to be as emotionless as possible and talk as little as possible, and never mind if time to time you look dumb because of that, instead of looking cool.

If you decide to watch this movie:

1) Ignore the plot holes. 2) Ignore all the pointless characters. 3) Lower your expectations to not be disappointed.

Not sure what makes this Western genre offering from The Asylum so surprisingly decent. My guess is pure mathematics. When it doesn't have to spend money on special effects from bargain-basement CGI house Tiny Juggernaut, The Asylum can devote those same dollars to scriptwriting, direction and location scenery.

This is essentially a mockbuster of the new "True Grit," with Barry Van Dyke unconvincing in the Jeff Bridges role and cutie pie nobody Sage Mears in the Hailee Steinfeld part, rewritten here as an alcoholic milf who hires Van Dyke to help her seek revenge against the bad guys who raped her and murdered her husband and children.

It's not his fault, but Barry looks so much like his father Dick, it's hard to take him seriously as a rough bounty hunter. You half expect him to burst into "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in every scene.

And because he must have some sort of contract that says he appears in every third Asylum movie, Greg Evigan shows up as an old, fat, useless sheriff who only serves to remind us baby boomers how old, fat and useless we've gotten since "My Two Dads" too.

It's true the weaponry here is anachronistic and the money shown in the poker game scene is too modern. And yeah, pretty much every cowboy in this movie rides his horse like it's the first time he's ever been on one. But really, even the most authentic of Westerns have always been revisionist fantasies. The Asylum isn't asking too much when requiring we take this one with an extra grain of salt.

Why? Because ultimately, it works. For some reason, "6 Guns" works as a whole to create a harmless cowboy flick that's better than you would expect from the king of direct-to-DVD cheese. After all, this is the company that gave us "Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus," so I think we need to count the few blessings The Asylum throws us.

Sage Mears is a very attractive actress. One would think she might get better roles. She is really the only one worth mention in this straight- to-video western. With the exception of 3:10 to Yuma, I didn't even know anyone way still making westerns, but here we are.

There isn't a lot of great acting here, but how many westerns feature acting giants. It's the action you come for. There isn't a whole lot of that, either.

It's a revenge movie. The bad guy (Geoff Meed) kills her husband (Brian Wimmer) and two sons and his gang rapes her. She becomes the town drunk until the bounty hunter (Barry Van Dyke) arrives in town.

What happens next is not entirely believable, but it makes for a fairly good story. I can't say as much for the very end. That goes off into fantasy land.