Facetious Western travels through the familiar landscape of the genre, albeit with the figures in the landscape masked in inexplicable shade under bright sunshine and in mushy, brownish photography. It bypasses, meanwhile, the familiar moods, attitudes, emotions ("Amazing Grace" will get sung at a graveside, but only in jest), en route to a far-afield climax at a poker tournament aboard a riverboat. From there, it chugs through an endless ending of double, triple, and quadruple twists, before it lingers at the last exit as if begging to be called back for an encore. More precisely and profitably, a sequel. James Garner, the original Bret Maverick of the late-Fifties TV series, has been hired on (not for the role of Bret Maverick) to add a degree of validation, but all he adds instead is a degree of venality. With Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Coburn, and a mob of cameo performers; directed by Richard Donner. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.