Embuscade à Dark Canyon

The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was to see Sydney Penny. But she had only about five minutes in the whole thing. Disappointed.

This last sentence is to fill out the minimum character requirement.

I live in Nashville Tn and work in the music business and we always laugh when someone refers to our genre as " Country and Western" - we prefer simply "Country". But with the lead character being skillfully portrayed by veteran Country Star, Kix Brooks and with a killer soundtrack featuring Kix, Randy Houser ( who also appears briefly in the film) and the angelic voice of singer / songwriter Leslie Satcher... I gotta say I'm rethinking Calling it Country and Westerns! Although this was a low budget film, it was really entertaining. Well cast, well directed and full of great performances- it is a really commendable effort from all involved- with extra kudos going to the lead character Duke Donovan - played by Kix Brooks.

There is a great twist in the plot and I found it thoroughly entertaining from start to finish!!

Check it out, it's a great watch and if you like Westerns - then you'll really love it! Here's hoping for another installment of Duke Donovan in the future!

How do you make a movie marketable? Well ask the Germans (distributions)! They always think of something, mostly connected to something that is popular at the time. Renaming this movie into "Hateful Ambush at ..." you immediately think, you have heard this somewhere before. Which you'd have at the end of 2015 and early 2016, because of Quentin Tarantinos eighth movie (Hateful Eight).

So the German distribution is looking for the quick money they can make, not considering, what the viewer or consumer might think. Not many will be happy let me tell you. But apart from that fact and it's impact on German viewers, what does the movie have to offer? Not that much action unfortunately and not too much quality either. While it does try to be different and a slow burner, it doesn't really achieve that either

Since she bought it, we forced ourselves to watch. The film was full of mistakes. Lucky for me I watched it while more time was spent doing a crossword puzzle.

"Some say the legend of Duke Donovan began to eclipse the man." After Marshall Duke Donovan (Brooks) is thrown in jail as an accomplice in a bank robbery he learns that his former partner is plotting to kill his wife. After getting help he escapes and begins the trail of saving his wife and clearing his name. This movie continues the western tradition of "the other side of the story" that every one is told. Movies like Blackthorn, Young Guns 2 and (the one that did it best) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are examples of this. When the entire country seems to know what happened but when someone who was involved tells what they know everything changes. Since the plot of the movie involves a tried and true western idea and because it was R rated and didn't hold back the grit this is one of the better westerns in the last few years. Of course most of the recent westerns were Hallmark Channel westerns but even taking those away this was a good western. Even the bad acting didn't affect the way I felt about it. Overall, one of the better westerns that have come out lately. I give it a B-.