The Gambler, the Girl and the Gunslinger (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Don't Gamble on this Gambler, Girl & Gunslinger **

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 26 July 2009]

You just know that when the 2 guys meet, despite the animosity between them, they shall ultimately become friends especially when there is a threat by Emperor Maximillian's army and other renegades towards them.

A well dressed drifter roams into town and gets land thanks to a win in a card game. He is the gambler.

The guy loves a widow, but her husband has been dead for three years now and our guy hesitates in proposing, instead offering all kinds of excuses not to wed her. After all, Jim, her deceased husband, was his friend. Apparently, the girl has been waiting 3 years for our guy to ask so we can imagine the marriage she had with Jim.

In Mel Brooks' film of 1974, "Blazing Saddles," a line was stated that never in the history of motion pictures has the cavalry ever been too late. While this is true here, the ending is quite silly and if anything, detracts from the movie itself.

Cheap Canadian imitation Texas does NOT look like real one

[charlytully · 5/10 · 6 April 2011]

Guess what, Hallmark people. 2009 British Columbia does NOT look like 1863 "Brazor, Texas," United States of America. When will you movie makers get it through your heads that Canada looks like CANADA--a desolate, mostly underpopulated wasteland good for a few national parks and North America's major French-speaking enclave, but with little else to brag about? Even if the Canadian government desperately throws around film credits so movie producers actually are PAID two Canadian dollars for every world dollar they spend on their projects in that country does NOT mean that it is responsible to constantly bamboozle Americans with all these fakey low-rent counterfeit phony baloney ludicrous attempts to pass off Canadia as an authentic and\or historic American setting. If you want to be paid to make a film in Canada, fine--but either tell the movie goer IT'S HAPPENING IN CANADA, or do not place it ANYWHERE, or--if you are EMBARRASSED to tell a Canadian story, but you feel your story must happen somewhere--make a name up, such as Oompah Loompah Land.

The plot of this so-called western is silly, the acting is third-rate, the dialog is worse, and the climax is downright laughable. The U.S. Congress must extend truth-in-packaging laws to the film industry, since this would save film fans so much time and money. Since most projects from Canada are next to worthless, particularly those that try to stand in for ANY part of America, forcing Netflix, DVD distributors, and TV channels to apply a "black box" warning to such merchandise (just as currently required for the pharmaceutical industry when it packages questionable drugs) would help diminish what must be a dangerously rising level of antipathy toward all things Canadian on the part of their abused southern neighbors.

We enjoyed this movie, and the laughs were good too

[rainbow4142000 · 15 July 2009]

Hi, not everyone will appreciate this movie, it is after all, a Hallmark movie and shouldn't have a lot of gore and stuff in it. the plot was well done and the scenery beautiful....the two protagonists have a good 'go' at each other during the movie they are at opposite ends of the good guy/bad guy roles reminded me a little bit of the Gambler movie and the lady in the movie was added as window dressing but i think she did a good job......hopefully we will see her in more roles on TV ....and the acting was OK too, GO DEAN, keep doing some good stuff for the rest of your fans!!!! PS personally i think having to have a minimum of 10 lines to be able to post a comment is ridiculous, come on IMDb, give us a break, thanks!!!S and D T from Ohio

Oh This Movie

[blue141 · 1/10 · 12 July 2009]

This movie was horrible. I felt like I was watching a bunch of people playing dress up. Plus the fighting, shooting, blowing up of things, was laughable. The "acting" was like students at a community college were at their first week of training. Horrible horrible "acting" on everyones part. The main "actors" had so many cloths on, it made me sweat to look at them. So much cloth, the horses were about half seen most of the time. I hated this turkey. Speaking of which, the ending of the movie summed up for me how I felt about it. Laughable ending, but right on target so to speak.It was one of those movies I watched hoping it would get better, but it never did. This movie deserves -10 lemons.

A lot of good chuckles in this Hallmark Western

[CGMCC · 9/10 · 14 July 2009]

Dean Cain surprised me. The star of Lois & Clark is almost unrecognizable here, but that's fine as he fit right in with the proceedings. The comedy is subtle, but there's a lot of it! Alison Hossack is a new actress to me, and she nailed her role of the neighboring ranch owner who has a crush on the Gunslinger, played by James Tupper.

The invading protagonists could have been handled a bit better, but I can somewhat overlook that because the story was not really about them. The budget was apparent in some of the explosions.

The scenery was great, the sets and props excellent, and a pesky rain was noticed in about half of the picture. The star of this movie was the witty script and dialog between the stars!

I was well entertained! 9 out of 10.

Overall enjoyable and fun western

[KindredSouls · 8/10 · 20 July 2009]

The star of the movie really is Dean Cain. Maybe it's because his character is the outsider(in more ways than one) and therefore we pay more attention. Maybe it's just because he looks like he's having a ball playing Shea McCall, a child who learned to shoot growing up in the carnival circuit and whose father used to shoot plates off his head. I think it's an equal mix character and actor: it's hard to not pay total attention to Dean/Shea when he comes on screen. Actually, all the actors involved looked like they were having fun with this movie. I liked that even the minor characters weren't treated as simple window dressing. They all had a voice, a POV, and we cared about them because they care about their boss, played by James Tupper, who takes an immediate dislike to Cain's character. It's a fun movie, nothing ground breaking or too original, and the ending is predictable. But it's the getting there that makes for two hours of escapist fun. I really liked the chemistry between Tupper and Cain, and wouldn't mind a sequel(or two) at all.

a nice film with a simple story but good acting and screenplay

[nhojus2009 · 8/10 · 27 December 2009]

from the title i assumed that it would be another typical western film. well i was not sure whether it can deliver a good story or a good movie as a whole. but as the story progresses the landscape and the location takes me away. i say screenplay is good but the location is awesome. heads off to the actors cause its the fluent acting that made this film a nice thing to watch. dean cain rocks man! he is the jewel of the film. its a gr8 script with two lead characters completely opposite of each other. both are excellent man in different ways, with a good heart.the widow allison is a perfect mix of beauty and love. this film although having a simple story gives the audience some nice moments to remember. it could have been better but in its own way its a good movie and i liked it.

I liked it

[SanteeFats · 8/10 · 28 January 2013]

I thought it was well acted with Dean Cain playing his character with flair and elan. I can only believe that the people who gave it bad ratings either were looking for a lot of blood and guts without much of a plot or didn't like a mellower type of western. Although I did think the end was anticlimactic and did reduce my rating level. Sure some of the results in the movie were very predictable but were still done well. This movie did show that turkeys are meant to be eaten and not let go (white turkeys are not wild birds but farm raised). The biggest visual flaw I saw was the 1866 Yellow boy rifle. The Civil War was still on so this rifle did not exist except as an idea.