joecoby45
Slow West is most definitely a slow burn, with slim to no backstory for any of its characters. Making it feel shallow and pointless. Like why am I supposed to care about anyone in this film if I don't know them? The actors do the best with what they are given, but they are given practically nothing.
alindsay-al
I do like a good western and this film has some decent actors so I thought I would give it a shot but boy this film is really bad. The premise of the film sees a young man looking for a girl with the help of a mysterious bounty hunter. Kodi- smit mcphee plays our main hero in this film and he is just very bland and dull. I get it that we are meant to feel sorry for him but I never cared about him at all throughout this entire film. Michael fassbender is one of the best actors in Hollywood and he is totally the best part of this film. He is a pretty cool bounty hunter but even he isn't given much to work with in this film. Ben mendelsohn is in this film and he does an okay job in the film even though he feels really unnecessary in this film. Everybody in this film has absolutely no development and it hurts the film so much as you don't care about anybody. The story is so dull and has no uniqueness to it, it movies really slowly and actually makes no sense. The film is just so slow and has no depth to it's plot or characters and actually becomes a bit confusing to follow. The script has no unique drama or humour in it that doesn't help make any of these characters interesting. The style of the film is very bland and It just doesn't get you excited at all. Overall I really hated this movie and if you are a fan of westerns then you should avoid this film at all cost.
Tweekums
This film, set in 1870, follows sixteen year old Jay Cavendish who has left his native his native Scotland to find his beloved Rose who is now living in the American West. When we meet him he is in the west and shortly afterwards meets Silas, a bounty hunter who agrees to take him to Rose. It soon becomes apparent that Silas has other reasons for wanting to find Rose; she and her father have a bounty on their heads for the murder of Jay's wealthy uncle back in Scotland. As the pair progress west it soon becomes apparent that other bounty hunters are heading the same way and just about everybody we see is dangerous in some way. As our protagonists and various bounty hunters approach the remote cabin where Rose and her father now live a violent ending seems inevitable; the only real question is who will survive?Anybody expecting a classic western where the heroes are good and the villains are bad will be in for a bit of a surprise; this doesn't romanticise the old west; it shows it as a dangerous place where nobody is really good. Early on we see Jay shoot a woman who was pointing a gun at Silas in a trading post then leave her two young children with nobody to care for them. We later see that the supposed villains have taken then in. Knowing that Silas is after the bounty on Rose means we never know if he can be trusted not to turn on Silas at some point. While there are several characters this is mainly about Jay and Silas; Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender both impress in these roles. There isn't much in the way of gore but there are some shocking moments; none more so than the finale when everybody converges on Rose's cabin. The action may be set in the American west but was filmed in far-off New Zealand
something I suspect most viewers won't notice; I just noticed how beautiful it all looked. Writer/director does a fine job keeping the action taut and doesn't stretch the material too far
at only eighty minutes is distinctly short but making it longer would probably have just meant padding it with unnecessary material
and sometimes one only has time for a short film! Overall I enjoyed this more than expected.
Neil Welch
When Rose, the girl Jay loves, flees with her father from Scotland to America in the wake of a death for which they will be blamed, Jay follows in search of her. Hopelessly ill-equipped for his journey, he falls in with the hardened and cynical Silas who agrees to guide him. But there is a bounty on Rose's head, and Silas is a bounty hunter...This western is short, simple and leisurely. The entire cast, heading by Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jay and Michael Fassbender as Silas, is excellent. Filmed by a non-American crew on location in New Zealand and Scotland, and with an international cast portraying mostly immigrants, it has a peculiar feel for a western, with familiar tropes filtered through alien sensibilities. But that doesn't change the fact that it is a first rate movie from writer and first-time director John Maclean, which works on a number of levels - romance, buddy movie, shocker, with occasional laughs and an action finale. And everything works together.Recommended.
AD
