Mi Amigo (2002)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

As Lost became a hit, Josh Holloway became involved in an independent Western project called Mi Amigo in 2002 that tries to be a typical, book-like, readerly, outright Western bank robbery tale with some humor and more music than expected.  After being one of two partners to pull off a heist, indifference splits the two robbers (Holloway as Pal Grisham, Channon Roe as younger and Ed Bruce as older Bobby Ray) leading up to an ugly reunion involving unfinished business beyond money.

 

Writer/Producer/Director Milton Brown has written music before for films like Every Which Way But Loose, Any Which Way You Can, Honky Tonk Freeway, Cannonball Run II and the Burt Reynolds vehicle that changed music in post-production: Stick.  He obviously loves Westerns of the 1970s and tries to do a sort of update, but his screenplay is just a typical retro trip into the genre that does not even rank with the kinds of smart, laidback Westerns of the period.  It is an ambitious attempt, but it ultimately lands up being the same old same old and never really goers anywhere.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 is not awful, but lacks detail and is color muted, more typically in the mode of the Western genre.  Francisco Gonzalez cannot come up with anything more than a look we have already seen, the editing is way too choppy, pulling away from shots just as they are getting interesting and this is so close to a TV Western production for cable that the look and feel disappoint.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is flat and has no surrounds, but is clear enough at best.  Extras include trailers for other THINKFilm titles and a brief piece by Brown on Holloway that talks about his star appeal.

 

It might be there, but like Lost, he has yet to find the vehicle in which it will fully bloom.  Mi Amigo is for the very curious only.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo