I love a good western, but sadly the genre just doesn’t have the steam it once did. Thankfully that doesn’t mean they aren’t still being churned out, but most of the time they come to the straight to home entertainment market. The latest Hickok starring Luke Hemsworth, Trace Adkins, Kris Kristofferson, and Bruce Dern looks to bring the legend of Wild Bill back to the screen, but does it offer anything new to the story or will it fall at the OK Coral?

 

Hickok follows legendary lawman and gunslinger, Wild Bill Hickok, who is tasked with taming the wildest cow-town in the west. While delivering his own brand of frontier justice, the infamous hard-drinking gunfighter's reputation as the fastest draw in the west is put to the test. After seeing the trailer I was trying to keep my expectations low, but it looked like it might be something fun. While it isn’t doing anything to shake up the genre, it is a good movie. The cast all do a good job with their roles as they worked their way through a pretty generic genre western. There are some decent shoot outs, but nothing that really stood out as much as I had hoped. Make no mistake they have crafted a pretty good western here, but there is just something missing from the finished product to make it feel bigger. When you are dealing with a historic figure like Wild Bill you are already taking on a subject that has been done in so many different ways I applaud them for trying to do something a little different, but it felt like they went too safe for it to really deliver.

 

In the end when you follows a movie like Tombstone with similar subject matter you already have an uphill battle, but this film does a good job at standing on its own to offer up a pretty decent entry into the western genre. Had they offered up a bit more action and substance it would have been a great film, but if you are a fan of the genre it will be one you should check out and decided for yourself when Hickok hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD from Cinedigm.