‘Low-rent’ True Grit – The Old Way. Photo: Kehana Krumme / Saban Films

THE OLD WAY
Directed by Brett Donowho
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆

WESTERNS don’t really have to be original in plot. Viewers know what to expect – and want what they believe they are about to see. If a western takes an unexpected turn – think True Grit – it feels like a bit of a bonus.

So that this Nicolas Cage pistol-packer of a B-movie has nothing new to tell us is not too immediate a problem. The Old Way is a film with no originality to claim for its own and should not matter: the western trope is a well-worn path, and if you were only looking for stories you’ve never heard told before and related in a wholly new way, the chances are you’re not the type to hand over a few quid at a box office.

Briggs (Cage) is the retired gunslinger, settled now on a farmstead with his little daughter and beautiful wife.

James McCallister (Noah Le Gros) is the son of a man he killed and has, 20 years down the line, decided it’s time to take his revenge. He shows up with a posse and inflicts a terrible wrong on Briggs – which the old timer, along with his daughter Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has a good wedge of run time to put right.

The plot has as many holes as a baddie on the losing side at the OK Corral. The Briggs set-up for starters is weird: Cage is now in his dotage, while his wife must be about half his age and Brooke should really be a grandchild.

Why this revenge must be served in such a stupidly complicated manner is also a major failure – think one of the dastardly ways Batman’s adversaries would try and bump him off, and you’re close.

But maybe these wobbly bits do not matter.

There are grand landscapes ridden over by nice horses bearing men in cool outfits.

There is the swing-door saloon with the whisky served by barely dressed women. There are improbable gun shots – baddies firing volley after volley after volley and missing with every single trigger squeeze, with the main man simply having to unload one single shot to take out the object of his wrath.

This adds to the air of slight ridiculousness about the proceedings. This is a low-rent version of True Grit, with the father /daughter twist meant to add something. It doesn’t, but its weaknesses are not enough to make this unwatchable. It is basically another B-movie western, unlikely to be watched by anyone other than a firm fan of the genre – and because of that, will disappoint no one.