Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a Western comedy from 1979. That movie is "The Villain".
This movie caught my interest for 2 reasons. The first one is that this movie is a Western. And, as I made mentioned before in the past, I love Westerns. Adding onto the fact that this movie is a comedy. Which sounds awesome. Because my favorite Western comedy of all time is "McLintock!". In fact, it's probably the only Western comedy that I've ever seen until now. I know most people are going to mention "Blazing Saddles", but, sadly, I've never seen "Blazing Saddles". I hope to change that at some point, though. So already, we're off to a great start with these two genres mixed together for this movie.
The second reason why this movie caught my interest is because of the casting. Specifically, one cast member in particular, which I'll get to in a second. But let me go over the 3 main cast members first. We have Kirk Douglas, who I've always known to be a fantastic actor. We have Ann-Margaret, who, admittedly, I'm not that familiar with. I may have seen her in other movies that I've watched in the past, but nothing in particular is coming into mind at the moment. But then we have the 3rd cast member, and this is the one that got me interested in wanting to watch this movie. The other cast member is Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a western. I never thought I would say that in my lifetime, but it's true. We have Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Western comedy.
Now, when you think of Arnold's movies, you get a few different responses. Movies such as "The Terminator", "Conan the Barbarian", "Predator", "Commando", or those really cheesy, really stupid, family films that he put out in the 90's. But when you think of anything else that he's been in, chances are, nobody's ever going to answer this movie. So I'm really curious to see how Arnold is going to fit in this kind of environment.
I'm also hoping that the entire movie is going to be really funny. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Villain".
10 minutes later
All right, guys, I'd just like to say that I'm already loving Cactus Jack's horse; Whiskey. And the reason why is that Whiskey is kinda dickish, especially considering that his partner is being carried away after attempting, and failing, to rob the bank. So far, guys, this movie off to a pretty good start.
12 minutes later
You guys know what I'm digging so far? The soundtrack. You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but the songs I've heard so far have been really catchy. I'm really liking the music in this movie, guys.
3 minutes later
So let me see if I understand this. According to Handsome Stranger's backstory, he tried to stop a bunch of horses that were supposedly on the loose. Yet, what he stopped was a bunch of, I guess, firefighters, from trying to stop a fire that was burning down a whore house. Well...I guess Handsome Stranger certainly has his priorities straight, you know what I mean?
16 minutes later
OK, I have a question. It's a rather stupid one, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, Cactus Jack failed again to stop Handsome Stranger with his fake pastor trick after not realizing that Stranger's gun was able to carry seven bullets instead of six. So what I wanna know is where did he get the two horses from? Moreover, where the hell was he able to get a piano organ? And how the hell was he able to get that thing onto a carriage without it completely collapsing? I understand what I'm asking is fucking trivial, and stupid, but it's just kinda bugging me a little bit, you know?
17 minutes later
OK, that was kinda bullshit. So Cactus Jack painted some rocks black to make it look like a fake tunnel. Yet, Handsome Stranger's carriage was able to ride through it, even though there was no hint of a tunnel present before Cactus Jack painted over it. I'm sorry, guys, but that, to me, was kinda stupid.
13 minutes later
Well, I think it's safe to say that these are, probably, the most inept Indians I have seen in a Western in a long time. Apparently, after you mount your horses and charge, they apparently don't know what the fuck they are doing. Most of them are falling off their horses or don't know where the fuck they are suppose to go while on their horses. Maybe Cactus Jack should've rethought this plan, but, then again, all of his other plans have failed up to this point, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "The Villain". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Wow...that ending. Well, without going into spoilers, the movie basically ends with a piece of a music that is a rendition of the "Looney Tunes" theme song. I'm not totally sure if, or how, they got the rights to use that song, but I'll save that for when I talk about the soundtrack.
Right now, I want to start with writing. Now, in case you couldn't tell with my mention of the "Looney Tunes" theme song, this movie is basically just that. It is a straight-up live action cartoon. Specifically, it's what would happen if you take the concept of Wile E. Coyote, and you stretch that to an hour and a half. And it kinda works. Because, as a child, I grew up watching "Looney Tunes", and I do remember watching a lot of Wile E. Coyote shorts. So, you're basically watching nothing but that for an hour half. And for those who enjoyed watching the Wile E. Coyote shorts, then this movie is going to deliver just that. I should mention that this movie does not take itself seriously at all. Which makes sense if you're advertising a movie that is labelled as a comedy, especially if the concept is basically taking the premise of Wile E. Coyote and making it into an hour and a half movie. So, if this movie tried to build dramatic tension for no reason, then this movie would've suffered, and it would've sucked in the process. As for the story itself, beyond the premise of it being a live action Wile E. Coyote cartoon, the story here is OK, though it is a bit shallow. Basically, Cactus Jack is a terrible villain, which is intentional, but I'll get into that when I talk about characters, who ends up being sent by the owner of a bank that Cactus Jack blew up, and he sends Jack out to get the money from Handsome Stranger, who is escorting Charming Jones, because her father paid him to do so. And from there, it ends up going the route of Wile E. Coyote, as Cactus Jack tries to stop Handsome Jack to get the money, and...well, you get the idea, if you've seen any of the Wile E. Coyote shorts.
Now because this thing is a parody of Wile E. Coyote, there is one, possibly, two things that might hold this movie back for you. One of them would be the pacing. I should note that this movie, as I made mention before, is an hour and a half long. Which is fine for comedies, because you really don't want to stretch it beyond that. However, I do feel, at times, the movie sorta drags. One moment, in particular, is whenever we have to deal with the Indians. The Indians, in this movie, really kinda drags this movie down. They really don't play much of a role in this movie until Cactus Jack tries to enlist their help in stopping Handsome Stranger. And, even then, their scenes go on for a little too long, and most of their scenes aren't funny. I can see that they were trying to make them funny, but it doesn't really work for most of their scenes. There was one moment with them that I thought was kinda funny. And that was when Handsome Stranger and Charming Jones cross the Indian County line. When they see that, the Indians try to stop themselves from crossing the line, however, one of them ends up crossing the line, and the Indian Chief, upon seeing that he did cross the County line, tells him to come back to his own turf. I'm going to assume that it was suppose to be a play off of racial humor, but it did make me smile, even if the joke was slightly racist. But still, that was the only time where anything funny involving the Indians worked. Aside from that, though, they kinda dragged the movie down to a screeching halt, and the movie could've benefited with their scenes being a lot shorter. The second thing that might hold this movie back for some people would be the repetition. Because this thing is an hour and a half of live action Wile E. Coyote shorts, that's most of what you're going to see in this movie is where Cactus Jack tries, and fails, to stop Handsome Stranger, and all of his traps end up backfiring. And to some people who are not into this style of humor are probably not going to care for this movie at all. Or, if you've never seen a Wile E. Coyote short in your life, then you're probably not going to understand the fact that this movie is, basically, trying to pay tribute to those Wile E. Coyote shorts. And so, you might end up despising this movie if you're expecting it to, either, be serious at times, or if you see this style of humor not to your liking. And I could totally see that happening. However, since I did watch a majority of those Wile E. Coyote shorts, I was able to get into this movie with, almost, no problem. So it depends if you like your comedies to either being fast paced and straight to the point, or you like it slow and build up to something that you might view as funny.
Beyond the style of humor that this movie was aiming for, let's talk about the characters. Our characters are interesting, yet kinda shallow at the same time. Cactus Jack is, as I made mention before, a terrible villain, who tries everything in his book to be as bad as possible. And I'm not kidding about the book, either. Because he literally carries a handy book about how to be the best bad man in the West. Which I thought was kinda cute and charming. What's weird, though, is that after he tears the book off after all the tricks he tries to use end up failing against Handsome Stranger, his plans, after that, still fail. So I guess whether he had the handy book or not, he was not going to be successful, anyways. So...oh well. I will say that my favorite character in this movie has to go to Cactus Jack's horse; Whiskey. As I made mentioned earlier, Whiskey is just lovably dickish, and if I ever had a horse, I would totally love to have one like Whiskey. But that's just me getting off topic. Point is, Whiskey was the best character in the entire movie for me. Handsome Stranger is oblivious to just about everything around him, despite always trying to do the right thing. One example I brought up earlier was when he was talking about how he tried to stop a carriage of horses that were 'out of control', and once he does, the camera shows that it was group of firefighters that were coming to help put out a fire. I didn't even know that there were firefighters in the Old West, but that's not really an issue. And then, after that, he is approached by this lady, who yells at him that her life's work was going up in smoke. And then Handsome Stranger asks her what did she work as? I guess Handsome Stranger never took into account about what she worked as, thanks to her outfit. Or, before that, he tries to help an old lady, who didn't look old in the slightest, cross the street, even though she didn't want to cross the street. And, a bit of a spoiler here, the next time we see her, she ends up getting injured because she tried to cross back the street where Handsome Stranger tried to 'help' her, and ends up getting ridiculed by her because of his 'selfless' act. Then we have Charming Jones, the woman who Handsome Stranger is helping to escort, who's main goal this entire movie was to get Handsome Stranger to fall for her, and she ends up failing each time, because Handsome Stranger doesn't know how to take a hint. Honestly, of the three main cast members, she comes across as the weakest when it comes to depth. However, I'm willing to give most of it a pass, because the movie is still pretty good, and the humor here does work, with a couple of exceptions aside. Part of that has to do with my bias for Westerns, but in terms of comedy, I really did enjoy what was here, especially with what did work in terms of humor.
Now let's get to the acting. The acting here is mostly decent. There are two actors, however, I need to make mention. One of them is Arnold Schwarzenegger. One thing I was curious about was how Arnold was going to handle this kind of setting, being that this is, probably, the only Western that he's ever been in. And after watching this movie, my expectations for him were pretty much what I thought it was going to be. For those who have never seen any movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, most of the time, his acting ranges from wooden, to kinda shit. And this movie is no exception. Now, granted, it's not something that I'm going to criticize him for because I know that Schwarzenegger is never going to be considered a great actor. Even calling his acting 'good' is rare, in most cases. But anyway, this movie has the same kind of shitty, wooden acting you would expect from Schwarzenegger. And most of that can be seen as laughable, so I can give his performance in this movie a bit of a pass. The other actor I need to make mention in this movie, and it's not even a part of the main cast, is the actor who plays the other villain in this movie; Avery Simpson. Now, when I first saw him on screen, I didn't think much of it. But as time went on, I started to get a look at his creepy buggish eyes, and there was something about it that looked familiar to me. So, I looked up who the actor was, and he goes by the name of Jack Elam. And that's when I recognized him from another movie with those same eyes, and his familiar voice. That movie being "Rio Lobo". For those who've never seen "Rio Lobo", he played another character in that movie named Phillips, who was, sort of, a drunk and played some sort of weird instrument. But anyway, I recognized him from that movie and I sorta smiled because, it's one of those weird, nerdy, moments where I recognize an older actor from a different movie and I just have to make mention of them because that's just how I am sometimes. Anyway, he turns in a really good showing, for the few scenes that he was in the movie. I kinda wish he was in the movie longer, but, oh well, it's not a big deal in the end. But as for the rest of the cast, they all turned fine showings, so I can't really harp on the acting, unless you want me to count Schwarzenegger's kinda shitty acting. However, as I said, I'm not going to do that here. So, setting aside his questionable performance, I can certainly give most of the acting a positive from me.
Costuming here is done really well. Special effects, such as the makeup effects on Charming Jones looks really good, as is her costuming, too. Our props here for stuff like the rolling boulder that Cactus Jack uses a couple of times looks kinda fake, but it's not something you're going to notice, or care about, unless you have a great attention to detail for props for whatever reason. Speaking of which, I need to talk about editing for a second. Because there are a couple of moments where the editing seems to be a bit sketchy. One of those moments happens when Cactus Jack is under Handsome Stranger's carriage, trying to hold on. During all this, Cactus Jack's shoulder straps gets held back as it's continuing to stretch backwards, where it leaves his body, and then the weight starts to become too much and it pulls him backwards, as he goes flying towards his jumpsuit. The camera then shows a wide shot of Cactus Jack flying back towards his jumpsuit, but when he reaches it, you don't get to see him go into his jumpsuit, and the camera will then change shots to where he's back in his jumpsuit. So there is that bit where editing seemed a bit off. The other one has to do with the rolling boulder I mentioned a while ago, where it will show three of the same shots of Cactus Jack getting run downed by the boulder. Now that shot could've been intentional, but it still seemed a little bit weird to me.
Camerawork here, minus the couple of oddities in editing, is really good. Lighting is done rather well. Then again, most of this movie was filmed outdoors, so I would expect the lighting to be really good. Sound-mix is mixed well. The music is great. In particular, I'm mostly talking about the character themes for Cactus Jack, Handsome Stranger, and Charming Jones. All of their theme songs were amazing, and I loved it. Partially because, it's that old school country music that I loved listening to when watching Westerns, so that definitely works. There is also the rendition of the "Looney Tunes" theme song I mentioned earlier. Again, I'm not sure if Columbia Pictures, or the company that put this movie out on DVD, which was Sony, had the rights to use that song, but I will say that the rendition is really good, so I guess I can't complain either way.
So, with all that being said, am I able to recommend "The Villain"? If you are a fan of the Wile E. Coyote shorts, or if you like comedies in general, then yes, I can totally recommend it. If you're a fan of Westerns, then I can also definitely recommend it. However, if you're not fan of any of those things, or if this kind of humor doesn't suit your tastes, then your probably going to want to avoid this movie. Me, personally, I really enjoyed this thing, despite the flaws that this movie does have. And I'm not just saying that because of my bias for Westerns, but more so that I enjoyed watching the Wile E. Coyote shorts as a kid, so it didn't really bother me as much as it should have. Now, I will say that this thing is nowhere near as funny as "McLintock!". However, I consider "McLintock!" in a league of itself, so I'm not going to bother making that comparison. But yeah, guys, if you ever see this thing anywhere, be it on DVD, Blu-ray, or if it's on Netflix, or Hulu, go ahead and give it a watch. It's certainly worth watching, at least, once, if you're ever curious about this movie. As for myself, I'm definitely going to give this thing a happy spot on my DVD shelf, so I can safely say that I'll be watching it more than once. Now...I kinda want to go and watch another comedy. And I do have "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" sitting on my DVD shelf, so I'm gonna go watch that, just so I can keep the theme of "Looney Tunes" going.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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