This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Old Timer Rodeo Rider
Plot Overview
Joe Wainwright (Neal McDonough)
& Charlie Williams (Mykelti Williamson) were army pals in
a tank division in Afghanistan. Afterwards Joe became a three
time world champion bull rider and Charlie his bullfighter in
the ring. After burying Joe's wife Rose (Ruvé McDonough,)
the two men drifted apart.
Joe's
grandson Cody (Graham Harvey) gets beaned playing baseball and when
checked out he's discovered to have a brain tumor of the kind that
killed his grandmother Rose. His single mom Sally (Sarah
Jones) cannot afford the $75K–$150K operation, so Joe of
necessity signs on to the PBR
Legends Championship for the $750K grand prize, $300K second place,
even though nobody over fifty has ever before qualified, and Joe is
feeling his age. Charlie drives him to Tulsa for the rodeo, and
their inside friend Jimmy Mack (Christopher McDonald) helps them
navigate the red tape. It's a hopeless gesture and he's cruisin'
for a bruisin' similar to the lines of author Frederick Forsyth:
By the winter of 1942 the Soviets were taking horrendous losses in men and tanks around Kharkov and Stalingrad. The tactics were traditional and lethal. There was neither time nor talent for subtlety; the men and tanks were thrown into the muzzles of the German guns without thought or care for losses. In Russian military history that was how it had always been. (297)
Ideology
The top three riders in the three day
bull riding contest are to be awarded a new truck each. Joe
promises his, if he wins over the younger contenders, to Charlie
for his volunteered service. Charlie's truck has seen better
days as happens. Also for the way he carries around a Bible and
reads from it morning, noon and night, he's undoubtedly worn out
several to be replaced; now he's toting one in pristine condition.
In the tradition of the southern preachers using the elegant King
James Version (KJV)—easy to memorize from,—we
expect he might quote a familiar verse to the flagging Joe: (Isaiah 40:28-31) “Hast thou not
known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the
LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He
giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and
the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
What happens is
Charlie fans through the pages of his good book and blindly stabs
his finger right on one
of those verses above, but in a modernized English
translation. His method obviates the need to memorize
anything, which is good because the rearranging and
substituting words plays havoc with memorization but is necessary
to receive a copyright only granted if a new work is
substantially different from its predecessors, and the publishing
industry needs a copyright to make money on sales.
God is not too happy with this
arrangement. He's not so poor as to require commercialization
of His word, but gives it for praise, for remembering one's vows,
and for specifying deliverance requests. (Psalm 50:12-15) “If I were
hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the
fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood
of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto
the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
The New International Version (NIV) that Charlie quoted from was copyrighted: 1973, 1978 & 1984, a time when our English language underwent deliberate modification due to problems (some) women had relating to men. Said Rush Limbaugh, “It's almost as if America went through its own feminist Cultural Revolution in the 1970s and early 1980s. Everything went mad for about ten years, and only now [1992] are we seeing young people who now view those years as somewhat bizarre” (191). “Somewhat bizarre” is The NIV in this context, which Charlie quoted (Isaiah 40:29) “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” That sounds like a recommendation for rest and recuperation, what Sally wanted for Joe, rather than an encouragement to man up and ride the next bull, which Joe could have used the KJV exhortation for.
Production Values
“” (2025) was directed by Jon Avnet. It was written by Jon Avnet, Neal McDonough and Derek Presley. It stars Neal McDonough, Mykelti Williamson and Sarah Jones. They played stock characters, which they were adequate for. Graham Harvey played youngling Cody Wainwright and held up his character's pivotal role.
MPA rated it PG for thematic elements,
language and violence. The writers, in my opinion, did a good job
with the script; it's not their fault the way the product turned
out. The camera work was substandard, the subject(s) hogging space
on the frame, the contrast overdone, and the brightness
glaring. The sound was muffled, not sharp. The editing was okay
except there was no way to compensate for an uxorious Neal
McDonough using his actual wife Ruvé McDonough to play his
screen wife as the ghostly presence he alludes to, wears his ring
for, and kisses big in flashback. It's like an undeclared
documentary slipped in. Runtime ≈ 2 hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The mild profanity is corrected, the sexual mistakes lamented, the fighting almost avoided, and the drinking tamed. It could have been worse. As a faith-based, family-friendly flick it's about what one might expect: technically substandard but warm and fuzzy. It will appeal to a niche audience but is of a type Hollywood eschews because they need the ‘R’ ratings to compete with television. There's an announced commercial spiel at the end.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action scenes. Suitability for children: Suitable for children with guidance. Special effects: Well, at least you can't see the strings. Video Occasion: Good for Family Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Scripture quotations marked NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION or NIV are taken from the
HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible
Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Web.
Forsyth, Frederick. Icon. Copyright © 1996 by Bantam Books. New York: Bantam Books, 1996. Print.
Limbaugh, Rush. The Way Things Ought To Be. New York: Pocket Books, 1992. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org