A Gunfighter's Pledge (2008) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2008
Director: Armand Mastroianni
Cast: Luke Perry, C. Thomas Howell, Jaclyn DeSantis, Kim Coates, Francesco Quinn, Wyatt Smith, Jorge Pallo
Rating: -
Release Date: 5 July 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

The Movie Review

A Gunfighter's Pledge film still 1


A GUNFIGHTER's PLEDGE
Storyline:
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Ending:
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Western movies have almost always interested me. There's just something about the sunny day with all the gunfights and the horseback riding. Although I watched most of them with modest expectations since the storyline is mostly pretty generic although still amusing sometimes. As in the case with A Gunfighter's Pledge, which was a made for TV movie aired as an original movie of Hallmark Channel. I admit I didn't see this straightly on DVD, but on TV while waiting for my girlfriend to get dressed. And then I hunt for the DVD for I'm sure it won't disappoint western film fans.

A retired sheriff named Matt Austin (Luke Perry) is enjoying his peaceful life with his family working as a regular rancher. But after old nemesis, Tate (Kim Coates) escape from sentencing, Matt is forced to do lawman work and gun work in the same time all over again. In the meantime in a town called Crockett, a wealthy filthy businessman, Horn (C. Thomas Howell) is trying to get a hold of Amaya's (Jaclyn DeSantis) property and land. But the man of the house, Eddie (Alex Paez) is doing the best he can to defend the land including to venture to the town of outlaws, Asquerosos. There Eddie and Matt's fate will intertwined, a journey for Matt that could help him finish his work and revenge.

Actually The Pledge (the title for the DVD version) holds nothing new to behold. So like I said before, if you pop in the disc (or switch channel to Hallmark) with fairly so-so expectation you would be quite amused. We have the bad guys wearing black suit and black hat, a hardened by experience and tragedy kind of hero, a sexy single mother (who had appeared topless in Road Trip (2000) by the way) and fairly enough amount of bullets flying around. The beginning of the movie is the best part, with a bit of a twist to keep general movie buffs intrigued.

The drama sucks though with Luke Perry acts overly cool that makes him feel very distant and having zilch chemistry with Jaclyn DeSantis. Moreover, C. Thomas Howell absolutely didn't perform his best. Luckily we have Kim Coates who brings a sense of gritty reality to the overall tame western film. It's good that the screenwriter doesn't forget to make the bad guy really bad to keep the story flowing. The town set is small but not that bad probably because of the relative modest budget but the choosing of the ranch house was good, the same one as in Motel Hell (1980). The musical score is pretty standard with average to cheesy-at-times camerawork.

A Gunfighter's Pledge will not be something memorable. You'll forget it soon enough after watching it, but it's still a decent made-for-TV movie. Make sure you could rent it with cheap price if you're curious enough.

More of modern western movies: 3:10 to Yuma (2007 remake), Appaloosa (2008) and Redemption: A Mile from Hell (2009).