kenjha A pair of cattle rustlers targets a rich rancher. The characters are generally cartoon-like, which would be alright if the film were funny. Although the actors deliver their lines as if this is a broad comedy brimming with laughter, the film is totally lacking in humor. Not only is it devoid of laughs, but there is hardly a plot to hold one's interest. It starts with an uninteresting conversation between Bridges and Waterston and it goes downhill from there. Bridges and Waterston are supposed to be charming and endearing for sticking it to the rich, but they come across as self-absorbed jerks. The cast features a number of familiar faces in supporting roles but they can do nothing to overcome the lousy script.

Woodyanders The engagingly kicked-back seriocomic slice-of-life picture was one of the more beguiling sub-genres which flourished in the 70's. This disarmingly quirky, low-key, easygoing cult favorite is one of the best of the bunch. Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterson are both very much in their wry element as two indolent, disaffected, shiftless smartaleck country youths -- Jeff's a quick-tempered white boy; Sam's his more level-headed Native American buddy -- who make their living by blasting cows and selling the meat to the highest bidder. Gruff, truculent rancher Clifton James, mighty ticked off about his livestock being decimated, hires an aged, irascible, but extremely shrewd stock detective (a lively, marvelous performance by the always wonderful Slim Pickens) to put a stop to the increasingly irksome and costly cattle rustling.Tom McGuane's sharply written script acts as an acidic, witty and insightful meditation on the sad, unfortunate, painfully protracted passing of the glorious Old West and the gaudy, corrupt, superficial money-grubbing New West that's being erected in its place. Frank Perry's able direction, aided by William Fraker's sparkling cinematography and a catchy, flavorsome country and western score by Jimmy Buffett which kicks out the clop-hoppin' jams something nice (Buffett himself can be glimpsed performing "Livingston Saturday Night" on stage at a honkytonk bar with none other than an uncredited Warren Oates playing harmonica), does McGuane's superb script full justice, thereby producing a leisurely paced and pleasingly off-center charmer which effortlessly draws viewers into its uniquely oddball laid-back universe without ever becoming too forced or cloying about it. And the top-rate supporting cast couldn't be better: Harry Dean Stanton and Richard Bright as a pair of useless nitwit ranch hands, Elizabeth Ashley as James' bored, neglected wife, the delectable Patti D'Arbanville as Bridges' ditsy girlfriend, Charlene Dallas as Pickens' seemingly sweet and innocent grand niece, and Joe Spinell as Waterson's concerned, mellow, philosophical Native American father. Ashley, Stanton, Spinell and Oates also appear in McGuane's sole directorial effort, the similarly splendid and endearingly idiosyncratic treat "92 in the Shade."

csm23 Rancho Deluxe is a rare delight. It's a Western with a modern twist. The `good guys' are the ranchers. The `bad guys' are rustlers, down and out young men who poach cattle just to get by, pay their rent, and eat. Naturally, your sympathies lie with the rustlers, because they're the underdogs. We also sympathize with the rustlers because the ranchers are wealthy, socially prominent and dominant – everything the rustler's aren't. They have everything they could want, so they're bored. And when the rustling problem appears, they treat it as sport – like hunting a predatory animal. But their boredom takes other amusing forms as well. In one scene, the lady of the house tries to light a fire with the ranch hands. She's one of many cowgirls in the movie, women who like to be in the saddle, and to be the saddle. `Come on, goddamit,' she yells at the cowboys, Burt and Kurt. `I want some Gothic ranch action around here! I want some desire under the elms! I want to see some smoldering blazes down at the old corral!' It's hilarious. These guys are worthless. So it's a sad irony that her husband, who boasts that the B-Bar-Lazy-T has `the best matrons and the best sires,' must confine his boast to the non-human mammals on the ranch. When he takes his prize stud-bull to the county fair, the announcer describes it as having `tremendous thickness and length… This bull has it all: size, bone, trim and color. It just brings tears to my eyes.' One can almost see the tears of unsatisfied desire in his wife's eyes as well – that all the virile sires are bovine. Slim Pickens, a former horse-thief turned cattle detective, is brilliant, funnier than ever. And then there are the scenes that provide a little social satire. Speaking of the Western love of pickup trucks, for example, one character denounces them as `a sickness here worse than alcohol or dope. It's the pickup truck death. And there's no cure for it.' I wonder sometimes if I don't recognize the disease right here in Flagstaff.All in all, Rancho Deluxe is a very entertaining hour and a half.

rwint Two modern day day cattle rustlers cut up stolen cattle while talking about the tooth fairy. Macho ranch owners who at one time used to run beauty parlors. Romantic candlelight dinners that turn into wild sex orgies and last but not least $50,000 steer who tears up a motel room. You also get to see the 'world championship pong game'. This is the very first video game that two of the rustlers play while talking business. This is just a few of the off the wall ingredients that await you in this thoroughly engaging, thoroughly quirky little charmer. To say it is just quirky wouldn't be doing it enough justice because it is much more than that. Writer McGuane literally takes every cliche and then playfully works against it. It's success comes from it's ability not to betray itself. No contemporary or 'normal' characters and no broad humor. It's flashiness comes through it's subtlety and laid back nature. Like a good western ballad it's sly and knowing without ever looking like it. This is somewhat similar to McGuane's 92 IN THE SHADE that came out at roughly the same time. Both are good and deal with eccentric characters and humor yet this one fairs better. Mainly because director Perry edits it more tightly. All scenes revolve either around character or story developement. No scenes are excessive in length. Thus you have a better pace and better story momentum. This is a fun movie to watch over and over. Simply because it is so original and done in a very original way. It also makes a good point about the decline of the modern day west which is and maybe always was just a state of mind. Slim Pickens has his best supporting role since DR STRANGELOVE. Filmed on location in Montana which is gorgeous and a real treat since a lot of films aren't done there.