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THE SHOOTER (1997)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
The 1990s is such an underrated decade for the Western genre. Even a cheap and cheesy film like THE SHOOTER (or DEADLY SHOOTER as it is titled on Tubi) is better than most of the attempts at making a Western these days.
It is certainly cheap (see the costumes and boom mic cameos) and cheesy (nearly every scene with Valerie Wildman is hard to take seriously) but this movie also gets a lot of things right. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, the plot is steady and straightforward, and the themes of justice and redemption and having a moral code are well in place. Most importantly, Fred Olen Ray’s film kept my interest from beginning to end. It’s like a standard 50s Western, not overly complex but engaging and entertaining.
It’s interesting to see Randy Travis as the villain, though I think he might be slightly miscast. With Travis as the leading man, this could have been even better. But as is, it’s worth an hour and a half of your afternoon or evening.
Watched on Tubi.
