Lights Out Movie Reviews
Copyright (c) 1994, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved


        Ŀ
          MAVERICK:  Richard Donner, director.  William Goldman,   
          screenplay.  Starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James    
          Garner, Graham Greene, James Coburn, and Alfred Molina.  
          Warner Bros.  Rated PG.                                  
        

          Mix THE STING together with BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE
     KID, sprinkle in a dash of LETHAL WEAPON, and flavor liberally
     with elements from the original TV series, and you get MAVERICK,
     starring Mel Gibson as that Old West conman Bret Maverick, Jodie
     Foster as Annabelle Bransford, a lovely woman who can almost
     out-con Maverick, and James Garner as Marshal Zane Cooper, a
     reluctant traveling companion and sometime watchdog to the wily
     pair.  The original TV series treated the Western genre with a
     kind of tongue-in-cheek reverence (as opposed to THE WILD WILD
     WEST which was an out-and-out lampoon), and I think it's safe to
     say that this big-budget, big screen version takes the same
     lively tone.  It's a fast-moving rip-roarin' ride through an Old
     West you won't find on any map or in any history book, tracing
     Maverick's trials and travails as he tries to scrape together the
     last three thousand dollars for the entrance fee to a lucrative
     poker championship.  The movie is one big con from beginning to
     end, and I think you'll love it.

          The filmmakers were reluctant to pitch the project to Garner
     at first, fearing he would be insulted they didn't offer the lead
     to him.  Thankfully, Garner agreed to take the Marshal's role,
     and he adds quite a zest to the proceedings.  Garner and Gibson
     really do blend well together; they seem to have the same larceny
     in their hearts and the same twinkle in their eyes.  Gibson may
     be more of a rough-and-tumble Maverick (he certainly seems to
     have more fistfights in this movie than Garner did his whole
     first season as TV's Bret Maverick), but that devil-may-care
     attitude bonds them together.  Jodie Foster is more than a match
     for the guys; I am *so* glad her role wasn't written as the
     typical simpering female that populated so many Westerns.
     Annabelle is tough-minded and resourceful, but she can turn on
     the charm when she has to.

          Bret and Annabelle meet at a saloon poker game, both hoping
     to raise the stakes to enter the steamboat championship game.
     Right away, we see the magnetism between the two adversaries;
     Annabelle is quite impressed with Bret -- he's quick on the draw,
     he plays a mean game of poker, and he fights off five men who
     call him out of the game.  There's a surprise about that fist-
     fight that I won't reveal . . . in fact, there are several
     twists and turns in MAVERICK (including a strangely-familiar bank
     robber) that, if revealed, would spoil your fun.  Needless to
     say, nothing is as it seems to be.  Even a run-in with an Indian
     tribe works to Maverick's advantage, although the hair-raising
     runaway stagecoach ride that brings Bret, Annabelle, and Coop to
     Indian Territory is certainly not part of the plan.  Graham
     Greene plays the Indian chief as a native analog for Maverick --
     his character is so much fun I found myself forgiving Gibson and
     Greene for their modern-day slang.

          Look for a ton of cameos during the championship poker game:
     faces from country music like Clint Black and Vince Gill, and
     faces from old TV Westerns, like Doug McClure and Denver Pyle.
     MAVERICK is a fun romp with a resuscitated TV icon that for once
     lives up to the nostalgic image baby boomers are carrying around
     in their cultural memory banks.  This is one of the few times I
     can say I'm looking forward to the inevitable sequel.

     RATING:  $$$

