The Cowboy Way (1994)

This movie was pretty much the epitome of cloning or ripping off another movies concept, and then see it go straight to video (in the UK at least). Back in the day you'd find many of these random comedies on the videoshop shelves. Movies you'd never seen or heard of before but had really good casts; its like they just popped up outta nowhere ('Celtic Pride' for example). You had no idea if they were any good but you'd usually rent them because of the cast, and sometimes the neat movie poster on the box.The plot centres around two cowboys in New Mexico (Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland) who must travel east to New York in order to find their Cuban friend Nacho (who went to find his daughter). Turns out Nacho owed money to a gang for bringing his daughter into the US from Cuba. In the meantime the gang keeps his daughter in sweat shop slavery. So the butch stetson wearing duo must find Nacho and his daughter.In short this is a very weak rip-off of 'Crocodile Dundee' but minus everything that made that movie a classic. I'm sure you know exactly what to expect when I say that. Both protagonists are your absolute cowboys. They both wear stetsons, jeans and cowboy boots all the time. They both have various stereotypical cowboy skills which come in handy throughout. And they are both displayed to be rather butch and sexy over dem city folk. The only real difference is Sutherland's character is the more sensible, straight laced cowboy with morals. Where as Harrelson's cowboy is the wildcard who loves loose women, drinking and getting into trouble. Pretty predictable stuff really.Most of the action we see if also your predictable guff (oh my the stunt doubles!!) which was done way better in that 1986 Aussie comedy. Being cowboys these guys are of course out of their natural habitat in downtown New York/Manhattan. They dress funny, they talk funny, and they act all gruff; its all just so...funny. Somehow they manage to waltz into the Waldorf Astoria unchallenged and then manage to get into the dinning area for a snack to eat. Oh the hilarity that ensues as Harrelson's Pepper character acts all uncouth (ahem).Later on Pepper gets himself into a posh yuppy-esque party for catwalk models (some middle aged woman takes a fancy to him). So this is the part where Pepper acts a bit homophobic because cowboys are real men, grrr! As the plot progresses they meet mounted police office Ernie Hudson who tickets them for camping out in Central Park (you know because they're cowboys and that's what cowboys do). Ernie's character seems to fall under a bit of a man/hero crush with these cowboys and starts helping them on their quest. By helping them I mean completely violating his jobs procedures and acting like a wild cowboy. This includes riding all over New York on his police horse waving his gun around. And allowing Pepper to drive his truck full speed into a local bar owned by the gang (his truck seemingly suffers no damage and apparently no one gets killed or injured).As the trio chase after the main villain (a snarling, scenery chewing Dylan McDermott who dies quite horribly in the end) they basically end up riding horseback all over places which you simply wouldn't expect to see a horse being ridden. This is of course the movies main hook, having cowboys running amok in Manhattan. They make a point to ride past many landmarks, because of course they do. I can't deny it was interesting to see these scenes of cowboys galloping down main streets, bridges, railway stations, the port areas etc...In the end this is a cheeky little number that solely relies on the then star 'brat pack' power of Kiefer Sutherland (which he retained for quite sometime); and that period in time when Woody Harrelson was considered a bit of a heartthrob. It also relies heavily on the overly used concept of lower class rough types clashing with posh types, and the tired culture clash formula. The weathered, seemingly backwards type character/s entering the fast-paced modern world.Its totally as you would expect all the way. A silly comedy with Harrelson in his brazen undisciplined period, and Sutherland just doing what he always kinda did...look stoic (whilst also looking like he stepped out of a Marlboro advert here). Its reasonable but there are much better similar action comedy flicks from this era.6/10

"The Cowboy Way" is a movie tailor made for Woody Harrelson to star, once again as the mindless redneck with a heart of gold, a bit slow to understand things around, but capable to ultimately save the day. Here he was paired with Kiefer Sutherland, playing the big brother type, the wise and restrained of the duo, even if in real life, Kiefer is about 5 years younger than Woody, but sporting a manly moustache and acting mature and it worked.The story is like a "48 Hrs." buddy flick meets "Crocodile Dundee", a fish outta water action / comedy about two naive cowboys from New Mexico which came to the Big Apple searching for their elderly Cuban friend that went missing trying to find his illegal immigrant daughter, in a plot that focus on human trafficking led by Tomás Milián and his sleazy henchman, played by Dylan McDermott in a surprising scene-stealing performance.The movie flows well and the two leads have on-screen chemistry together (not as much as Woody / Wesley Snipes in "White Men Can't Jump" and "The Money Train", but yet adequate) with Woody faring better than Kiefer in his usual ingenuous / childish behavior type (think Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan or Tom Hanks in "Big") that made him a star when he was cast in "Cheers" and he's always watchable to follow. Kiefer is okay, but he was never as solid playing the good guy as he was playing villains (like in "Stand By Me"; "The Lost Boys"; "Eye for an Eye"; "A Few Good Men" or "A Time to Kill"). Ernie Hudson offers a fine support as the NYC Cop who helps the two cowboys in their asphalt jungle adventure.In short, "The Cowboy Way" is a passable, however harmless flick with a couple of good scenes that don't mesmerize the viewer, but neither bores him. It's a case of "been there, done that" that can satisfy a less demanding audience and especially, fans of Woody and Kiefer, but if you're looking for something new or creative in the action / comedy genre stay away of this one, because it just limits on ressurging the old formula.

Pepper Lewis (Woody Harrelson) and Sonny Gilstrap (Kiefer Sutherland) are competitive best friends on the rodeo circuit. Their friend Nacho travels to NYC to rescue his daughter Theresa (Cara Buono) from smugglers holding her after she escaped Cuba. Ruthless criminal John Stark (Dylan McDermott) is keeping Theresa to work in his sweatshop. Sonny finds Nacho's note and goes to join him with Pepper riding along. Pepper catches the eye of socialite Margarette (Marg Helgenberger). The guys befriend police horse patrolman Sam Shaw (Ernie Hudson). Sadly, Nacho has been murdered.This is a fish out of water action comedy. There is the charismatic duo of Harrelson and Sutherland. They are fun together. The material isn't quite as good as those guys. There is little humor other than the bits generated by Harrelson with Sutherland as the straight man. The story is straight 90's good guys and bad guys. It's not anything great but there is good enough chemistry with the boys.

If they would have just dropped the whole slavery ring idea, the Dylan McDermott character and most of the nastiness, this could have been a great movie. As it is, though, "The Cowboy Way" is only half-good, which is a shame seeing how good the good parts are.As Pepper, Woody Harrelson has his best movie part in a long time. His raunchy, ready-for-anything cowpoke is one funny character. He contributes some of the best scenes here, as observed before; like when he entices the lady in the string quartet, does the "no-hands" trick with the hat, licks salt off of Marg Helgenberger's neck or dances around on a model's runway. He's quite a show, that Woody. Sutherland doesn't come off quite a swell as Sonny, the more sensible of the duo. He's all seriousness and grim necessity - the exact opposite of Pepper. That he gets the bum end of the deal is no fault of Sutherland's or ever Harrelson's. They both do their best under the circumstances, yet have to fight a no-win situation against the script, which gives them only a couple of scenes where they actually get along.But then there's the whole situation of WHY they are in New York - the white slavery, vice, corruption, beatings, shootings and deaths have no place in a movie whose biggest parts aim for a "'Crocodile' Dundee" flavor. Confusing? Definitely.Five stars for "The Cowboy Way", only half-good, but half-bad, too.