Outlawed Guns: Mostly for the hardcore western fans

Is it worth your time?

If you love old-school B-westerns, you'll probably enjoy the comfort of this one. It’s a very specific vibe: dusty, earnest, and moving at a clip that makes you wonder if they were racing against the sunset to get the film developed. If you don't care for guys in hats yelling at each other in the desert, stay away. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, and honestly, it barely tries to polish it.

Buck Jones is the anchor here. He carries that tired, weathered look that makes you believe he’s actually spent a few years on a horse. He’s trying to save his brother, who made the mistake of falling in with some outlaws. The brother is the classic "too naive for his own good" type. You spend half the movie waiting for him to realize he’s in over his head, which is pretty much the entire plot.

The action is... well, it’s functional. There’s a scene where someone gets shot—or maybe they just fell over, it’s hard to tell—and the pacing just keeps pushing forward like nothing happened. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Perils of Pauline, even if they are totally different genres. They just don't stop for breath.

Oddly specific things I noticed:

• The horses seem like they are having a better time than the actors.
• There’s a hat tip in the first act that lasts maybe a second too long.
• The dialogue is mostly just people stating the obvious to each other.
• Someone is constantly adjusting their belt. Like, every five minutes.

It’s funny, I was watching this and thinking about how different the pace is compared to something like Piccadilly. Everything here is so straightforward. No subtext, just a guy trying to fix a mess. It’s nice in a way. You don't have to work hard to figure out who is the bad guy.

The brother character is frustrating. He’s the kind of guy who would trip over his own spurs. Every time he opened his mouth, I wanted Buck to just put him on a train and send him back home. But then we wouldn't have a movie, right? 🐎

The whole thing feels a bit like a sketch that got stretched into a feature. Not a bad sketch, mind you. Just a very, very thin one. It’s not trying to be Branded or any of the big epics. It’s just a Saturday afternoon flick. And for that? It hits the mark just fine.