Aces & Eights (RHI/Genius)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Telefilm: C+
RHI
continues to shrewdly spend their money to build their company up, making the
biggest impression yet with Craig R Baxley’s Aces & Eights, an amusing “here comes the railroad, so get out
of the way or you’ll be killed” Western with Casper van Dien, Bruce Boxleitner,
William Atherton and Ernest Borgnine.
Stuntman-turned-director Baxley is always genre ambitious, resulting in
sometimes odd outcomes.
They are,
however, at least interesting.
Unfortunately, it is also predictable as Borgnine refuses to give up his
land, the other two male leads are gunfighters not yet in the middle of the
others being thrown off of their land forcibly, even if it is by murder, and
Noseworthy is trying to bring peace and a deal in one of his best roles
ever. Too often, this feels like a
lower-case retread of the underrated 3:10
To Yuma remake (reviewed elsewhere on this site) but Western fans will be
amused at least and find it worth a look.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image can be soft, but is not bad for a TV movie, but it
still looks like every overly clean TV Western production out there. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is nothing
spectacular either, but all is well recorded for the most part. Extras include Borgnine getting a special
gift and separate interviews Van Dien and Borgnine.
- Nicholas Sheffo
