Customer Reviews

Aces N' Eights

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just an average Oater. If you like westerns as much as I do, you'll love it for what it is. Classic good vs. evil cowboy flick plot. As a movie the wife might like to watch with you, forget it. Pretty lame and a bore as far as a movies go. For (baby-boomers and beyond) Guys only.

"Aces N' Eights" (the title has nothing to do with the story, BTW) revives the old chestnut about the railroad forcing landowners off their property, spiced up with names like Ernest Borgnine (as the most stubborn homesteader), William Atherton (as the nasty railroad bureaucrat, naturally), Casper Van Dien and Bruce Boxleitner (both quite good as gunmen who develop consciences) and Jeff Kober (looking eerily like Denis Leary as the most bloodthirsty of Atherton's men). A minuscule budget and pedestrian direction (by Craig R. Baxley) does the film in, with poorly-staged action scenes, continuity problems, and an annoying reliance on tight close-ups.

It's all been done before, and done better..."Aces N' Eights" is for undiscriminating western fans only!

To the films credit, it has a excellent cast and great story line of redemption. The problem with the film is that the screenplay seems to not focus enough on the redemption of the main character. The main character Luke, was a gunfighter who used to ride with a gang and he eventually left after a massacre they committed. The film instead focus almost entirely on the villains and their murders of the families who refused to leave their land because of the railroad, this was wicked distracting and made me extremely uncomfortable. When the main character Luke, played by Casper Van Dein, came onto the screen, it seemed to me that all of his scenes were small and they disappeared quickly. So I gave this film 2 stars because of the lack of focus Luke and the glorification of the villains and their killings. So, it was not the greatest western ever made. All in opinion.

This above-average but violent made-for-television western pits the villainous land-hungry railroad against the defenseless, small-time ranchers whose lands lay on the route sought by the railroad. Stuntman/action director Craig R. Baxley helms this exciting B-movie horse opera with flaw to spare. The color photography constantly thrusts you into the thick of the gunfire and the handheld camera work lends a versimilitude to the action that enhances this oater. Casper Van Dien is actually tolerable for a change and the beard gives him a lot of maturity. Late in the action, he puts on a poncho and vaguely resembles Clint Eastwood. Basically, Van Dien plays a gunslinger who has tried to hang up his six-gun and reform himself. Naturally, the villains compel him to strap on his hog-leg one more time. The sturdy cast includes Bruce Boxleitner as a believable gunfighter. Ernest Borgnine of THE WILD BUNCH plays one of the chief ranchers that the railroad has been harassing about his land. "Sugarland Express" star William Atherton is an unscrupulous local railroad official who has no qualms against killing to make a point. Of course, the devious Chicago-based railroad company doesn't want to pay a penny more for the land. "Aces 'N Eights" springs a couple of surprises along the way without violating any of the formula conventions of westerns. The Dennis Shryack and Ronald M. Cohen screenplay observes all the cliches and then wields them with style. For example, the Bruce Boxleitner gunfighter is reminiscent of Ben Johnson's gunfighter in "Shane." Jack Noseworthy stands out as a member of the railroad who has come to negotiate a peaceful settlement between the railroad and the landowners. The gunfights are noisy but not bloody. The treacherous hired guns working for the railroad terrorize and murder land owners and their wives to scare them into selling out. The finale is a well-staged gunfight between the heroes and the villains with a surprisingly conclusion.

A story about hired guns and the railroad.
The bad guys are killing anybody who won't sell
on the right of way. It gives "Eminent domain"
a new definition for the wild west.
Something like "redevelopment' in the inner city
in modern times? In MOB terms they call it an offer that you can't refuse:
here they call it the "dead man's poker hand".
The picture this movie gives is of smaller holding farmers
being killed and their property taken by organized
railroad thugs.
When they kill an old man who had an hired hand who was once a gunslinger,
trouble in a large destructive way ( a shoot out) takes place.
I wouldn't call the result an happy ending.

This is a tired and very played out story...the acting is pretty hack level and the direction is by the numbers. Ernest Borgnine is a gem and everything he does is "authentic" while pretty much everything else feels a notch below a quality movie of the week circa 1972. Bruce Boxleithner's paunchy brown toothed gunslinger isn't bad though its a cliche part/character. I wasted 9 bucks on it...don't go out of your way to find it on cable. I love westerns...this isn't going to do ANYTHING for the genre.

Seen aces n' eights, liked the movie and just had to buy it. It is a good western, if you like them.

THIS IS A TYPICAL WESTERN MOVIE ACTUALLY IT WAS PRETTY ENTERTAINING AND DECENT,, IT IS DEFF WORTH RENTING SO JUST CHECK IT OUT BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO PURCHASE THIS ONE.....THE ACTING IS REALLY GOOD AND GOOD CAMERA!

Haha! We have to laugh when we remember how terrible this movie is! After watching it with my family, we looked at each other and said, "That's the worst movie I've ever seen in my life!" The acting was bad, the storyline was okay but it could have been so much better. There was one good fight scene (otherwise we would have given it 0 stars!) It definitely wasn't worth the money spent and the time to watch it.

It was cool seeing Bruce Boxleitner and Ernest Borgnine in a movie again, but the plot was pretty predictable.