Sunday, July 29, 2012

Texas Rangers/Bob Funk



Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Steve Miner

Starring: Dylan McDermott, James Van Der Beek, Ashton Kutcher, Alfred Molina, Rachael Leigh Cook

From: Miramax

Bob Funk (2009)


Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Craig Carlisle

Starring: Michael Leydon Campbell, Rachael Leigh Cook, Grace Zabraskie, Amy Ryan

From: Unified Pictures

Here's a two-fer for tonight, the final two movies I saw this past Tuesday in that big four movie marathon I did. First, I'll get to Texas Rangers, a movie not entirely based on fact and delayed for two years and obviously edited by 20 minutes before it finally got released.

The plot is rather simple: a ragtag group of young people decide to join the Texas Rangers after the Civil War; they are led by Leander McNelly (McDermott) and they end up having to deal with the villainous John King Fisher (Molina). That's it in a nutshell, but there's various dramatic moments with characters growing and changing and all that. There are also some comedic moments.

The movie isn't the greatest but it's still watchable. At least the movie moves fast enough (but too fast, it turns out) and the action is entertaining-enough. Like I said, though, I wish that one of these days the longer version would get released, but that is highly unlikely I realize. While it sounds toxic to watch a movie starring Van Der Beek and the former Mr. Demi Moore, they are more than tolerable. There are other familiar faces, like Usher (!), Randy Travis, and a tremendous mustache-wearing Robert Patrick. Rachael has a small role as the little hottie who lives on a big ranch in Texas. Tom Skerritt is her dad! Of course both James and Ashton take a shine to her. Besides the scenery she provides, the general scenery of the movie (filmed in Canada and Mexico) at least looks... well, scenic.

Onto the second film, something completely different. This is totally an indie film, good and bad. Here's the plot: The title dude is a loudmouthed abrasive drunk who gets fired from his job (his boss is his mom; awk-ward); he ends up getting hired back and he works under a new employee (Cook).

This is a comedy/drama and it often moves between the two, and not always so well. Sure, there are enough humorous moments but overall the movie just isn't that great in terms of being entertaining. Sometimes old Bob is entertaining but other times he's just a real A-hole and not even the type that you can enjoy. Rachael's character is one who is a ditz and clumsy and that's about it for character development. There is some random nudity to spice things up, if nothing else. Still, while this wasn't awful it certainly wasn't the favorite film of me when it comes to Ms. Cook; at least she was a dirty blonde here, which was cool.

I'll be back Wednesday night.

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