It's tough to imagine an audience that would be satisfied with The Old Way, a new Western starring Nicolas Cage. One would presume that Cage-heads would be the film's primary target, but super fans of the oftentimes grandiose actor will likely find themselves disappointed by the actor's muted performance here.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY In the beginning, The Old Way hews more toward the former. Directed by Brett Donowho from a script by Carl W. Lucas, The Old Way opens with a typical Western trope—a good old-fashioned hangin'. Things go sideways after an escape attempt, and the dusty street ends up littered with bodies, all at the hands of Colton Briggs , a hired gunslinger who leaves a young boy, now fatherless, behind at the scene to deal with the wreckage.
If all of this sounds like extremely standard stuff, that's because it very much is. The Old Way borrows liberally from stalwarts of the genre like True Grit and Unforgiven, as Colton and Brooke team up to methodically track down and kill McCallister and his gang and just maybe learn a bit about each other along the way. And a short journey it is; at a brief 95 minutes, The Old Way moves you through the expected plot points in a hurry.
For any of this to work, the audience needs to become entirely invested in the inner turmoil of its lead characters. But, for long stretches, Cage plays Briggs as just kind of a grump, rather than a haunted man dealing with loss and his own personal demons. Armstrong, who starred in last year's Firestarter remake, fares somewhat better considering her age, although she gets tripped up by a role that hinges on emotional beats that feel either inconsistent or unearned at a script level.
Otherwise, there's really nothing here that should interest anyone outside of Cage and Western completionists. The Old Way just feels too formulaic to leave any sort of impact. And though there are a few instances where it feints at pushing the boundaries of the genre, it ends up pulling back because its short runtime and limited scope just don't allow for much exploration past whatever the actors are able to bring to the roles themselves .
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: etnow - 🏆 696. / 51 Read more »
Source: TheAVClub - 🏆 340. / 59 Read more »
Source: postlocal - 🏆 327. / 59 Read more »
Source: ksatnews - 🏆 442. / 53 Read more »
Source: screenrant - 🏆 7. / 94 Read more »
Source: abc15 - 🏆 263. / 63 Read more »