Dollar for the Dead (1998)

The shaded face of a mysterious stranger fills the screen as a gunslinger enters the saloon deep in the background. A bright but plaintive trumpet moans out a melody to the accompaniment of a strumming guitar. The stranger drops his shot glass and fires, catching the drink before it hits the floor. Ah, the operatic excess of the spaghetti Western... But wait, is that Emilio Estevez hiding under that Spanish brim? Gene Quintano's made-for-cable homage to the mercenary Westerns of Sergio Leone and his ilk doesn't have the wide screen, the Spanish deserts, or the magnetic, squinting presence of Clint Eastwood (Estevez is a poor substitute by any standard), but his dusty plains and cinematic swagger make for a fun little genre picture. Borrowing story elements from A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (among others), Quintano tosses bounty hunters, treasure hunters, renegade soldiers, and a posse out for revenge into a busy tale of good and evil in the American Southwest. Quintano soon tosses the measured pacing of Leone for a rat-a-tat-tat narrative sparkled with trappings of John Woo: flying bodies in slow motion, unending hails of bullets pouring through six-shooters, and a one-man killing machine taking on small armies single-handedly. It won't replace the Eastwood-Leone classics, but it's a surprisingly fun tribute that strikes just the right balance between reverence and grandiloquence. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

This isn't Young Guns

Emilio Estevez is a great actor but this role wasn't for him. If you want a spaghetti western, stick with Eastwood. March 16, 2008

Love Estevez, but this film really is quite dreadful. Avoid like the plague.

Emilio Estevez was great as Billy the Kid in Young Guns. His trademark laugh was an instant classic. Seeing him in another western was something I could not pass up. So I purchased Dollar for the Dead for only £3.

The DVD box did not bode well however. Referring to `Clint East Wood', Leone and Woo on the back told me that this film was looking to borrow from them to satisfy us. Well, never mind, a homage could be good fun. I managed to watch the whole film, but it was unfortunately pretty crummy. It appeared to have been written by a young teenager. Zero character. Plot you didn't care about. Great cast, but all struggling to make such flat lines come to life. It relied too heavily on the viewers good disposition towards it on account of it being reminiscent of other infinitely better films. The soundtrack was appalling pastiche. When I say that the script was bad, I am not talking in comparison to Oscar winners or obscure European cinema. It was appalling compared to something like No Retreat, No Surrender, or Under Siege 2.

Estevez was just too weedy to carry off the mysterious man with no name. He had nothing to work with. Not even good costume. If this was a spaghetti western, it was of the budget tinned variety. Not cheap but cheerful, just plain awful. Worth watching with a few friends if you like laughing at cheese. It's a waste of any money. Rent a decent western once. Don't own this drivel. And as for the secret of the coffin - its got a big gun in it. That's all.
September 26, 2007

Dollar For The Dead

At least we all agree on one thing about this movie, it is not dull.
Of what I can recall of (Dollar For The Dead), it has a lot of shoot'em up action, which for some strange reason 'impressed the socks off of me'.
At any rate, is a downer to see that right now it's coded a (Region 2). I do hope in the very near future that it will also have (Region 1) so it can be played on a regular DVD Player. Guess I'll have to wait til that one day comes....unfortunately. Oh well, thems the breaks.
To review on the acting, well it's been so long I really cannot recall everything; so a second review will have to come to be. Until then...

P.A. Gross August 6, 2007

Great Western!! Emilio Estevez rules!!

This is a great western starring Emilio Estevez that's reminiscent of the Clint Eastwood 60's Spaghetti Western flicks.It's a must see!! January 16, 2004

How could a movie that rips off Woo, Leone and Raimi be bad?

That's what I asked myself. It's got a Leone story (along with a 100% authentic imitation Morricone score), Woo action (the opening nightclub scene ripped COMPLETELY out of The Killer) and tries its best to have Raimi energy. But if you're going to be "inspired" or use an "homage", it should be to compliment a story and the story's characters; not build them.

A man with no name (ugh) gets involved with a one-legged ex-confederate soldier who's on the hunt for three pieces of a map that'll lead him to confederate gold. Tailing the mysterious man is another, beefier mysterious man (Howie Long) and his band of 'regulators' who seem to want to ventilate No Name's abdomen. Emilio Estevez as No Name, I am sorry, cannot be believed. With a gut hanging over his gun belt, I felt a little awkward as he sneered out tough-guy dialogue. Then when he reached up to put his hat on with tiny little hands, I lost it. When I saw that Estevez was starring, I hoped for a character somewhat like that of Billy the Kid in Young Guns 2, who Estevez was flawless as. Mischievous, lighthearted, smart-allecky. The Spider-Man of The Old West. But alas, we're given a Clint Eastwood character that the four foot-tall Estevez can barely fit.

The script, while containing some sharp lines, seems to be built entirely around them. I tried my best to understand where Dollar for the Dead went wrong and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly went right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. A cold, quick loner who reluctantly teams up with a man for whom he feels some animosity; but somehow No Name and Peg Leg just don't achieve what Blondie and Tuco had.

Then the villains, oh my. There's a totally unexplained Union Cavalry officer who just casually shows up and wants to kill our heroes. Then there's a Mexican soldier who has some sort of weird NOT-Mexican accent that I can't understand. And Howie Long. Amazingly, Howie's bad guy is the most interesting, but, par for this movie, he's the one with seemingly the least time spent on, hence no character developement. So at last, when No Name, Howie and the Mexican soldier face off in a The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-style three-man stand-off, the only tension that's felt is from reminiscing on memories from the older movie.

A Western with Hong Kong-style action, it's what I thought the world needed. But what's here is a case of "done before and better", without a lighthearted camp that could have saved it. If you're curious to see Emilio Estevez rip off Django, Chow Yun-fat and Sylvester the Cat, then rent and be wary. Maybe with lower expectations you won't be as let-down as I was. June 1, 2002

More reviews at Amazon.com ...