ahem this bad boy if this already up...here's trailer Click here! and some support interviews there at Viggo's website: Click here!

and nice pr on the Today show...with the man Ed Harris himself who wrote, directed, and produced this film. Click here!

Being a western fanatic, I'm looking forward to this, especially since it seems like it might be closer in tone to John Ford than Sam Peckinpah. I've always found Ed Harris an all-around talented guy, too, so that just ratchets up the anticipation!

Ditto on the Ford allusions .this does seem more old school... its nice to see the genre being tackled by the capable hands of Harris..plus the Viggo factor here with the boomstick edition of that 8 gauge, thats definitely eye-catching... and a nice touch, much like the big twohander of Mifunes...in Seven Samurai, indeed a nice prop to pair up with his character...and so deploy. And come to think of it somehow echoing James Caan's bad little friend in El Dorado(1967) by Howard Hawks... another good buddy film there as well.

This definitely has Robert Parker's fingerprints all over it. Picture Spencer and Hawk in the wild west. Difference is that the Susan character is feckless and fickle. Harris, Mortensen and Irons are all excellent. Zellweger is not as annoying at Kenneth Turan noted in his review, but that's probably damning by faint praise.

It can also be seen as exposition on the Patriot Act. To what extent is society willing to give over control of society to have security?

After writing my review, I did a quick sample of some other reviews and no one mentions the political slant that I noticed right away. Beginning to wonder if I'm just amazingly understanding or way off base.

FWIW, Darrel, my immediate reaction to the film was to wonder how two of the more outspoken Hollywood liberals could have made a film that essentially underscores the "conservative" idea that you've sometimes gotta step outside the law in order to do what's gotta be done. I chalked it up to the fact that they more or less adhere to the conventions of the genre, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the politics was supposed to come through in the subtle, in-between moments and not in the basic story arc.

I do think it's interesting how the film blurs the line between criminal and lawman, and how it also blurs the line between lady and whore.

Delightful film-- a leisurely, warm, charming little Western that moves at its own pace and is filled with cheerful humor and the warm camaraderie between its characters.

But my favorite thing about it: The soundtrack. Easily one of my favorites of the year. I love how it uses traditional country and mountain-folk instruments in service of a very, er, cinematic score that never feels like country or mountain-folk, per se.

This was a good choice for a date night film. Kinda western but not too harsh, actually had a warm story that developed between the two leads. I probably won't see it again until it's free on some cable channel, but it worked well for the entertainment we were looking for last night.

It's a decent popcorn film.