THE OLD WAY (2023)

THE OLD WAY (2023)

Tagline: Revenge Don't Care Much for the Law 

(Western, Action, Little Girls Might Blow Your Brains Out) [R]

In this one, we get the story of Colton Briggs who was basically a devil of a man who was known for being absolutely ruthless. As time has gone on, he’s settled down and married and had a headstrong daughter named Brooke. Colton’s past is about to catch up with him as a gang led by the son of a man he killed years earlier rides into town with deadly intentions. 

First off, I love decent to good westerns, so this one caught my attention for that reason, but also because Nicholas Cage (PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND) is in it and I just wanted to see him in a traditional western. He also made a “western” in 2022, but it wasn’t the style western I am into. Also contrary to popular belief westerns are still around and still getting made. At least 7 came out this year. It seems like Cage is either pretty good or just incredibly bad. This movie is one of those films where Cage delivers a mostly stoic performance but still manages to be extremely effective and even worked really well with Ryan Kiera Armstrong (FIRESTARTER) in several touching moments where he is kind of going into his past that changed him. I was not crazy about her role in FIRESTARTER as Charlie, but she fits this role really well and I have to give her props for just killing it to start her career by landing role after role. 

When we get into the rest of the cast, Kerry Knuppe (R.I.P.D. 2: RISE OF THE DAMNED) is solid as Colton’s wife Ruth. I do wish she had gotten more screen time, but what she did get, she maximized. We also have Clint Howard (THE WRAITH) in this as Eustice. If you don’t cognize that name, look him up. He’s in a TON of stuff. He kind of plays the bad guy with a little bit of “soul” in this and does decent, but I think for this role he was miscast. Noah Le Gros (THE BEACH HOUSE) does an outstanding job as James McCallister and I found myself wanting to kick his character in the nuts the whole movie. Overall everyone in this does a pretty fantastic job. The person in charge of weapons on the set was Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Apparently, she was almost kicked off the production due to several unsafe incidents. Cage was particularly frustrated with her. She was also the armorer on the set of RUST where one cast member was “accidentally” killed after getting shot with a prop gun by Alec Baldwin. 

The pacing in this movie is actually pretty good and fairly rich. Colton is basically a total a-hole, but he is kind to his daughter for the most part and he really is trying to teach her things and get closer to her, which is pretty tough, because like I said, the dude is a “devil” of a man. He isn’t satan, but he is a murderer, so yeah – super dysfunctional. What we don’t get is a wide range of emotions. There really aren’t any funny moments in this thing, but there are a few moments that might make you smile.

Cinematically this thing isn’t as strong as 2022’s TERROR ON THE PRAIRIE, but it’s also not quite as brutal and that for me made this one a lot easier to watch overall. Also – undoubtedly even in a bad movie, I always find Nicholas Cage hilarious. To quote the famous theologian Jake Peralta, “dude’s got range”. The score was solid, but not mind-blowing. The production was fairly solid and I thought everything felt authentic enough.

Overall this is a 4 out of 7, once I have seen about 30 movies in 2023, I do expect it will fall out of my TOP 10 for 2023, but if you are a Cage fan, this is practically a must-see. 

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