Not really an original film title is it, mind you its not really an original film lets be fair. But should you go expecting anything fabulous from a straight to DVD western starring Danny Trejo and Mickey Rourke?.
A badass group of outlaws rob a bank...as they tend to do. After they achieve this the group turns on their leader Trejo and guns him down...right down to hell. Yep that's right, just when you think it might be a simple cowboy flick you get a supernatural twist thrown in your face. So Trejo makes a deal with the overweight devil Rourke, the deal? to come back to the world of the living and kill the six other outlaws, six souls for the devil. He must do this within 24 hours to regain his soul and life otherwise he must endure a tubby Rourke torturing him forever, and that's along time.
The plot just doesn't make much sense to me, why would the devil allow this one guy to have a chance at killing his murderers?. Surely in that age in the west there would be hundreds of deaths at the hands of bad people, does he allow everyone this deal? or was it just for his own amusement because he liked Trejo's character?. I just don't see why the devil would be that bothered about six souls when he probably gets ten times that every day, I guess I'm thinking into this too much.
The plot is pretty similar to 'The Crow' really but lets be frank its a generic commonly used theme in most genres. The best thing about the film is the visuals I guess, it does look quite authentic with good locations and the town of 'Tombstone/Edendale' is actually quite big and impressive looking. It looks like they spent all their budget on the sets and costumes if you ask me. Gun slinging wise the action is crude and a bit hokey really, there is plenty of that old 90's John Woo style nonsense going on with no shortage of explosions...big explosions. Its also a bit too dark at times for me, way too much shadow as they clearly attempt a more dramatic artistic look, hey kudos for trying.
I find the whole thing swings in appearance from TV movie level visuals to full blown movie level visuals. The horse/carriage chase sequence looked stupid simply because you can easily tell nothing is moving very fast, in fact they are all 'galloping' very slowly behind a very slow carriage hehe. Sometimes you can see the pistols aren't really doing anything and the actors are whipping them around a bit unconvincingly, oh and I love how they keep on shooting way past their six bullet limit. The devils lair of hell seems to be a simple medieval stonewalled basement with an open fire and the devil himself in Rourke looks very errr...normal but fat.
Its definitely better than your average trashy flick and it could become a bit of a cult western thriller for sure. The acting is good enough, reasonable amounts of claret on display, decent atmosphere and some nice eye candy. It is of course completely cheesy, corny, cliched and somewhat artificial throughout.
5/10
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