Granted, while I am not particularly a fan of the Western genre, I do occasionally sit down to watch one such movie from time to time. And as I happened to stumble upon the 2011 movie "The Gundown" from director Dustin Rikert here in 2024, I opted to watch it, as it was a movie I had never seen before, much less actually heard about.

Writers Dustin Rikert and William Shockley put together a fair enough script and storyline here. It was a pretty straightforward type of Western story. So if you are a diehard fan of the Western genre, then you will definitely find something enjoyable in "The Gundown".

Of the entire cast ensemble in the movie I was only familiar with actor Peter Coyote. But I will say that the acting performances were actually fair. And there were some good talents on the screen, despite of them being unfamiliar faces and names. I've seen actor (and writer) William Shockley before in other movies, but he is not someone that I am overly familiar with.

It was so hard to take my eyes off of the lips of actress Veronica Milagros whenever she was on the screen. I am sorry, but what the Hell was going on there? I am sure that there wasn't that kind of Botox lips around in the mid-1800s America. It was just such a poor casting choice there.

I will say that the wardrobe, props and sets were good and definitely had a convincing mid-1800s Western feel to it. Well, except for those Botox lips.

"The Gundown" was a fair enough Western movie, though hardly a particularly memorable or outstanding movie. I can't claim that it is a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of director Dustin Rikert's 2011 movie "The Gundown" lands on a five out of ten stars.

What a crap movie, they bring Peter Coyote to acting 20 minutes or so in hope to hook the attention to the audience, bad move, the picture doesn't uphold by itself, the premise is really insane , the Town is made by brand new woods, pine cheapest wood, the special effects on gunfire is outrageous laughable, we clearly see the blasters some sparkers, as it were possible, the villain Travis McCain is too malign that damage his own merchandise, in this case his prostitutes, provide under awful screenplay the picture survives just the charismatic Cole Brent in a convincing an reliable acting, anyway al rimainder is totally wasting of time, be warning!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 4

This film was sort of doing ok with its scope & a decent story build. A good construction of tensions with good & bad character relations plus more individual character development was seen. (although a bit wooden in some cases).

Excellent camera work & lighting was clear from the very beginning & throughout. It is all going well until someone's over filled lips spoiled the whole film image & retro look with an obvious 21st century silicone plastic lip surgery. Tragically this became obvious to all as a mis-cast person. This was not an inappropriate look for this film. This made her character appear comical rather than intimidating - the opposite of what was intended.

What the casting crew were thinking of is unfathomable. They degraded this film from 'OK/Decent' to 'middling/poor' by this miscasting choice when everything else was open to them.