Jesse James: Lawman (2015) Kevin Sorbo, Peter Fonda, Andrew Galligan, Lawrence Evenchick, Lee Cyr, Jeff Dylan Graham Movie Review

Jesse James: Lawman (2015)   1/51/51/51/51/5


Kevin Sorbo in Jesse James: Lawman (2015)

Jesse James: Bore-Man

J. Frank Dalton (Kevin Sorbo - Shadow on the Mesa) is telling his story as he has made a claim that he is really Jesse James and he did a runner when another man who looked like him was killed, choosing to live a quiet life for a while. But now he finds himself telling his side of the story and in particular the story of a small town overrun by a gang of outlaws. With the mayor and the sheriff learning that Hoyt Killian (John N.E. Hill) is their leader they seek to hire a bad man to kill a really bad man, and the man they want is Jesse James. But what Jesse finds out is that the town the men are trying to intimidate has a mighty special secret.

Some times I like to imagine how a movie got made often trying to find some sort of reason as to how a bad movie has a couple of star names attached. This is what I found myself pondering as I watched "Jesse James: Lawman" as even trying to show come sort of compassion for those involved in this movie I can't say anything other than it is bad even by modern western standards. Now part of me thinks that those who made this movie found themselves coming up short on content and so someone called in a favour and persuaded Kevin Sorbo to come on board for an afternoon's work, shooting scenes so it seems like he is telling the story to a reporter using the gimmick that he is in fact Jesse James. It is just that, a gimmick which adds nothing to the movie what so ever. But then we get Peter Fonda as the mayor and whilst he doesn't have much to do in the movie his part does at least feel like it is part of the main story even if again it feels like he spent no more than half a day filming his scenes.

The thing is that once you take out the bits which Kevin Sorbo and Peter Fonda add to the "Jesse James: Lawman" what you have left is a rather dull western with a storyline about an outlaw going up against an outlaw. Not only is the storyline weak but so is the acting which combines to make this pretty damn dull. In fact the best part of this movie comes right at the start and I presume it is footage from a drone hovering over a canyon but it is pretty beautiful.

What this all boils down to is that "Jesse James: Lawman" is poor even by modern western standards and is one of those movies which you will spend more time wondering how a couple of star names ended up filming bits for it as the actual storyline itself is weak.


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