Terror on the Prairie (2022)
Starring
Gina Carano
Donald Cerrone
Nick Searcy
Directed by Michael Polish
I got suckered
into seeing this movie. I was deceived into believing it was worth my time. I
can pinpoint once or twice when the lady, Hattie (Gina Carano), could have
ended everything with a bullet, but instead, she did nothing. This western
thriller wasted the gritty, gruesome setting it created on a weak story.
There is nothing
wrong with the acting of Nick Searcy as Captain Miler in this movie; he seemed
to be the only one doing the work of portraying a character easy to dislike. As
the antagonist, he did all the right things to make me dislike him. Everyone else,
well, did not live up to their job. They were, as I would expect, B-movie
actors who didn’t see this movie as any reason to bring their A-game.
Casting Carano
in this role for me was a big NO. She could not carry the movie as the lead;
her acting ability, to me, failed her in a movie supposed to focus on the
aftermath of the American Civil War. She looked too tough and acted too tough
in a situation where I expected to see a woman holding off a bunch of men,
scared for her life and that of her children. Her character seemed too
confident that she would survive anything.
The story is
very simple and boring. Some men, led by Miler, are hunting down people who did
not side with the Confederacy. Hattie’s husband is one of them, and Miler and
his men came to his home to find him. It turns out he is not at home, but his
wife is.
Miler wormed his
way into the home, but when Hattie realized who he was, she pulled a gun on him
and had Miler and his men leave the house.
Gunfire and a
standoff begin, with the men trying to get into the house to subdue her, and
she is holding them off.
There were many
eye-rolling moments that followed the shootings. There was even a chance to
kill off the captain, but she allowed him to talk and walk away. There is no
dignity in death. When you get your chance, you take it.
The slow start,
weak story, and bad directing killed the movie for me. The wonderful setting
and costumes needed a great story and a good director. Instead, they allowed
the idea of casting a woman as the lead, holding off gunmen from getting into
her home, to run wild in their minds.
They didn’t
bother to come up with a good story to follow.
0 comments:
Post a Comment