Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story (2016)

This is a unique film in that acting ability is inversely proportional to where the actor is ranked in the cast. Trace Adkins' bio is extremely heavy on his singing career, which ought to tell you his strengths do not lie in his acting ability. His performance as Nate Reed is consistently flat, one dimensional, and loud -- seems the sound mixer cranked up the mic volume for each of his lines. The unhinged marshal's female sidekick (a fetching blond) is equally one dimensional, but just plain evil; the mix of her looks and personal qualities strains the imagination. Story-wise, you can almost predict the next scene based on where you are...almost. We have a few of the "Three weeks before," "One week later," etc. helper screens that serve no purpose other than confuse you. However, about 10 years pass between when "the boys" have a shootout with the marshal and his mate, and Nate Reed is reunited with his wife long thought to have been killed in the battle. They now have a son about 10 years old (she was pregnant at the time of the shoot-out), yet nobody else has aged, and the wife looks better than ever. Perhaps most puzzling is the last few minutes of the movie, when the final showdown occurs and the bad vanquish the even badder. The good marshals show up to apprehend the bad marshal & company, and the scene cuts to Nate Reed leaving church with the family, he and his remaining stage-robber buddy now full-fledged law men. Crops are saved, nobody remembers, and all is forgiven. The more I think about it, the few stars I can give.

Nathanial Reed (Trace Adkins) is a gentleman stagecoach robber. In the first scene he puts out the eye of Calhoun (Kim Coates) a US Marshal. The story picks up three year later with Reed being married and civilized and Calhoun out to kill Reed. Circumstances turns Reed back to robbing stagecoaches with his old gang Now there was a historical Nathanial Reed, aka Texas Jack who robbed stagecoaches. The story in this film looks nothing like his history found on-line. Sid (Judd Nelson) may be the only one that was historical besides the Dalton. The story and acting was wooden. The story line was predictable, probably because most of it wasn't true. This must be the Saturday morning version.Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

With all due respect, this movie is not worthy of the time you spend watching it. Trace Adkins tried to look sophisticated but I believe he came to the wrong territory; acting is not his business. The movie doesn't move anything inside the viewer and it's empty of real entertainment or solid story line. I really don't know they expect to make success with this run-of-the-mill picture.

It must be an unwritten rule somewhere that popular singers must at least once during their career appear in a movie Western. Such disparate personalities as Bobby Darin ("Gunfight in Abilene"), Mick Jagger ("Ned Kelly"), and even David Bowie ("Il Mio West") all appeared in one, mostly with mixed results. With country singers, appearing in a Western seems made to order, as folks like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson appeared in a fair share of their own.So I guess it turned out to be Trace Adkins' turn in "Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story". Quite honestly, he probably should stick with his forte because this flick left much to be desired. It's got the basics down OK, but the delivery is pretty flat and the flashback stuck into the middle of the story disrupts some of the continuity. While watching, I never for a minute believed that Laura Lee (Michelle Harrison) was dead during the shootout at the Reed ranch, even if Frank Bell (Claude Duhamel) had sworn up and down on a stack of Bibles. The whole idea just wasn't presented with a modicum of credibility.Even the way Texas Jack got his name came across as a dubious proposition. It came about when Nate Reed (Adkins), Frank Bell, and Sid Dalton (Judd Nelson) got wasted on a couple quarts of Apple Jack, and in their drunken daze they came up with the connection between Nate's home state and their choice of rotgut. I guess it could have been worse, they could have been drinking brandy.And then there was the final showdown. I liked the way Nate/Texas Jack shot the rope that Marshal Calhoun (Kim Coates) rigged to hang Sid Dalton, but then, instead of the two gunmen facing off against each other, it's the banker (John Emmett Tracy) who foreclosed on the Reed farm who came forward to make the save by shooting Calhoun. It almost seemed like a let down since it was Texas Jack's story, not the Ballad of Hank Holliday.