Saturday, May 2, 2020

Movie review: Badland

 
 Hired to track down Confederate war criminals, Detective Matthias Breecher roams the West looking for his targets. Finally locating an infamous Confederate Captain, Breecher immediately falls in love with his daughter.

Kevin Makely (Breecher), Mira Sorvino (Sara), Bruce Dern (Capt. Cooke), Wes Studi (Red), Trace Adkins (Gen. Dandridge), Jeff Fahey (Wainwright), Tony Todd (Sen. Burke), James Russo (Quaid), Amanda Wyss (Alice).

Badland opens with a mild bit of energy and what passes for backstory as Breecher hunts the West for Confederate war criminals. After what seems like a lifetime, he finds Captain Cooke living in the middle of nowhere with his beautiful daughter. There is a bit of action, and after what seems like another lifetime, Breecher and Sara join together for a Happy Ever After ending of sorts.

Acting left a bit to be desired in Badland. Makely looked good but did little more than wear black and grunt a line or two infrequently. Sorvino was decent and fit her role pretty well. Dern is looking older than usual here, but stood up his role nicely. Fahey was enjoyable, as was Todd, Russo, and the remainder of the supporting cast.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds are all decent with a realistic, solid feel though maybe not period fitting at all times. Dialogue is slow and completely without context at times. So slow we had a hard time staying interested. Sound is possibly the best part of the film with a mellow soundtrack.

Overall Badland is more bad than anything else. The film never develops any energy and the plot darn near stalls at times. Fans of slow moving, almost pointless Westerns may enjoy this one.

Not much to limit audience age here. Very mild sexuality, violence, and cursing, so this should be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2019
Reviewed: 5.2.20
Star rating: 2 out of 5
Genre: Western, Drama, Crime Drama, Western Crime

copyright ©2020 Dave Riedel

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