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STUDIO: Sony Pictures
MSRP: $14.94
RATED: PG
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• nothing

The Pitch

"Sam Elliott tries to show he's more cowboy than Tom Selleck."

The Humans

Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Ben Johnson, Geoffrey Lewis, Jeff Osterhage
 
The Nutshell

Based on the novel by Louis L'Amour

"The Civil War is over and the Traven brothers are going home. But what Mac (Tom Selleck) and Dal (Sam Elliott) find upon their arrival is a town ravaged by Confederate rebels who've refused to surrender. Swearing to fight the Yankees to the bitter end, the guerillas have kidnapped the Travens' younger sisters - as well as Dal's sweetheart, Kate (Katharine Ross) - and plan to sell them to a brothel in Mexico to raise money for guns and bullets. Determined to rescue their loved ones, Mac and Dal bust their Uncle Black Jack (Ben Johnson) out of prison and head south of the border, where they aim to finish a war they thought had already ended."

The Lowdown

The Shadow Riders aired on television in 1984 to mixed reviews and so-so ratings. Sam Elliott and Tom Selleck had already established themselves in previous roles that endeared their likable personalities to movie and television audiences for several years. These two pairing up for a second go in a western - the first being in the 1979 television western The Sackett's - seemed like a great idea however, somewhere along the way the filmmakers forgot that in order to make a worthwhile movie you have to have a good story line.

Besides the story taking forever to unfold and the dialogue riddled with too many cliches, The Shadow Riders turned out to be a boring mess. Instead of finding the main characters interesting they turned out to be just two actors walking around in cowboy gear. There was no depth in either Sam or Tom's performance and the supporting cast does absolutely nothing to elevate what scenes they are in. Now Sam and Tom look sexy as hell in their gear and they know it. In fact, these two just seem to be doing this movie just so they could play dress up because try as I might I never thought for one second these two were showing any form of commitment to the story. Another annoying aspect of the movie was the fact that Sam and Tom spend over half their screen time riding horses! No dialogue, nothing going on except these two galloping around most of the time and this would be fine if the movie offered more substance.

"Wrong sort of movie buddies."

The only thing this film has going for it is the scenery. Beautiful landscapes and the small towns gives the feeling of what a western is supposed to be like but all that is overshadowed by the sub par performances and all too typical ending. These sort of westerns worked back in the day of Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers but for a movie in the 1980's one would hope that more depth and grit would have been presented.

The Package

As with these sort of cheap releases there are no extras.