This truly is amateur hour. Clearly there is a story worth telling and, at times, you feel there is a good film struggling to get out but it is totally prevented from doing so by the sheer incompetence of most everyone involved. I thought the presence of the great Ron Perlman might be a guarantee of some level of quality, but he just phones his performance in - long distance!
You know you're in trouble when you spot a really bad edit in the first five minutes, then in the first shoot out there is some truly risible edits as the director tries to recreate the tension of a Sergio Leone gun fight - but fails so miserably! By this time the film is starting to look like it was a primary school project that just went wrong. And, let's face it, I should have guessed from the title...it's just pants. I was allowing myself to be led by my nostalgia for that truly great western series - 'Hell on Wheels'. Obviously the producers were looking to try and cash in on a spurious connection.
But the worst thing of all is the music, the constant and utterly dreadful incidental music. Except it's not that incidental, it pretty much drowns everything else out. Why film and TV makers feel that it is necessary to have music all the way through beats me. Trying to guide us what to think and, truth be known, to cover up some ropey plots and dialogue. This was about as bad as it gets. Whoever was responsible (and I really can't be bothered to look up the name) should meet the fate of many of the main characters adverseries...but with better editing! Avoid - you'll never get that 1 hour 50 minutes of your life back.
You know you're in trouble when you spot a really bad edit in the first five minutes, then in the first shoot out there is some truly risible edits as the director tries to recreate the tension of a Sergio Leone gun fight - but fails so miserably! By this time the film is starting to look like it was a primary school project that just went wrong. And, let's face it, I should have guessed from the title...it's just pants. I was allowing myself to be led by my nostalgia for that truly great western series - 'Hell on Wheels'. Obviously the producers were looking to try and cash in on a spurious connection.
But the worst thing of all is the music, the constant and utterly dreadful incidental music. Except it's not that incidental, it pretty much drowns everything else out. Why film and TV makers feel that it is necessary to have music all the way through beats me. Trying to guide us what to think and, truth be known, to cover up some ropey plots and dialogue. This was about as bad as it gets. Whoever was responsible (and I really can't be bothered to look up the name) should meet the fate of many of the main characters adverseries...but with better editing! Avoid - you'll never get that 1 hour 50 minutes of your life back.