DVD Collectors Online

Support Your Local Gunfighter, a review by Rogmeister

Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
Director: Burt Kennedy
Cast: James Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Elam, Harry Morgan, John Dehner, Chuck Connors, Joan Blondell, Dub Taylor, Marie Windsor

A few years after the success of Support Your Local Sheriff, this follow-up was produced and released.  Despite the similar title, same director and much of the same cast (but with Suzanne Pleshette as the leading lady instead of Joan Hackett), the film is not a sequel to the earlier film...but it's done in the same humorous bent.  In this film, Latigo Smith (James Garner) has escaped the clutches of a woman with matrimony on her mind and finds himself in the town of Purgatory where two mining factions are in a race for the mother lode.  Latigo winds up with a comical sidekick of a cowboy (Jack Elam) who he gets to pretend to be gunslinger Swifty Morgan and his scheme seems to be working...until the real swifty (Chuck Connors) comes to town.  While I enjoy this movie, for some reason I didn't find it quite as funny as Support Your Local Sheriff but it's still better than a lot of the so-called comedy-westerns out there.  And there's lots of familiar faces in this which always makes such films fun to watch.

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on August 16th, 2009)

100 Rifles, a review by Rogmeister

100 Rifles (1968)  110 minutes

Director: Tom Gries (who also co-wrote the screenplay)  Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast: Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds, Fernando Lamas, Dan O'Herlihy

Plot: A lawman (Brown) after a bank robber (Reynods) ends up helping a female revolutionary (Welch) in Mexico defend an Indian village against a tyrant (Lamas).

My Thoughts--This was not an outstanding western, though it did have its moments.  Raquel Welch (in one of her 3 westerns, two released in 1968 and the other 3 years later) is quite possibly the sexiest woman ever to set foot in a western.  She's sultry, fiery and looks good taking a shower (even though she is actually clothed, though briefly so, in her shower scene which is done in the movie to distract some enemy soldiers) and, of course, gets a bed scene with the lead, possibly one of the first romantic scenes on film between a black man and a white woman?  Probably not, but it's interesting.  Burt Reynolds, as a half-breed, looks a bit odd wearing a huge black sombrero, but I enjoyed him in the role.  In fact, though this is a western, I didn't see one traditional-looking cowboy hat in the entire picture though Brown's came closest.  There's lots of good-looking visuals in this movie, a requirement for a good western, as the movie takes place entirely in Mexico.  The film does drag a bit in spots and perhaps a bit more prudent editing and a slightly shorter running time might have helped there.  It does finally pick up steam in the last half-hour of the picture so I liked it overall...I just didn't love it.  My one quibble is one of the lead characters dies in the film...but we never see it happen.  That character is running along the rooftops helping fight the enemy...and the next time that person is seen, he/she is in the arms of someone...already dead.  I hated that. 

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 2nd, 2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon, a review by Achim

5. Goodbye to All That
Derek leads John on his first mission in defense of a military school cadet with a vital future role in the Resistance.



My comments:
I found the first half of the main plot quite boring. The setting in the military academy where John and Derek "did their thing" just didn't spark with me until the action started. Dealing with this week's problem was eventually resolved satisfyingly. John, for once allowed to lead the mission, was clearly enjoying the change of pace and in his new found position almost happily gave in to his fate.

The side plot, involving Sarah kidnapping a young boy to protect him from harm's way, was much more fun all the way through. The young actor gave a good performance and everything came together quite nicely between him and Lena Headey.

The other side plot with Agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones good as always) was not advancing enough; lame excuse to show off the T-1000 (or is it a T-X...?) again.


(mainly for the Sarah story line)



(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon on February 1st, 2010)