Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie Review

Better for those 'Texas Rangers' to lose the World Series twice than to see this 'Texas Rangers' more than once.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 1, 2011

We ride to protect the state of Texas.

There are a few different classes of movies, in a very broad sense: the great, the good, the mediocre, the bad, and the SyFy. Most filmmakers probably don't set out to make the first; those just sort of happen. The good, on the other hand, is probably what most strive to achieve, movies that are purposeful, well made, and memorable, maybe not Oscar material but quality productions with long shelf lives and instant name recognition. The middle ground isn't a bad place to be, either. There, moves might not have the same staying power or instant recognition as their superior peers, but they're competent baseline films that probably have a divisive reputation, though they are also movies that most can probably agree are at least representative of some average where movies are neither great nor terrible. Bad movies, well, those go without saying; they're the pictures that bring up the rear, aren't really purposeful, are infinitely forgettable, aren't very well made, and just sort of fade into obscurity, with maybe a fan here and there singing their praises and keeping it alive. The last on the list, well, those are in a class all by themselves that Texas Rangers need not concern itself with considering it wasn't made for the cable outlet notorious for producing laughably awful fare. So where does Texas Rangers fit on the list? It's a classic "bad" movie that desperately wanted to fall into the "good" category and, at the end of the day, probably would have settled for "mediocre." It has all the makings of "good" or "mediocre," but something happened along the way to the finished product that's certainly made it, well, a picture that "brings up the rear," "lacks purpose," is "infinitely forgettable," was not "very well made" and is definitely "obscure" despite a rather strong cast and an obvious push towards something better.

Beek and Kutcher are perfectly cast as authentic Texas Rangers.

During the American Civil War, the law-enforcing Texas Rangers disbanded so its members could do battle against the North and alongside their Confederate brothers. Joining them was their leader and a former preacher named Leander McNelly (Dylan McDermott). Now, ten years after the end of hostilities, Texas has devolved into a lawless state where bandits run wild and bring with them mayhem, thievery, and death everywhere they go. The Texas governor has ordered the Rangers reassembled and insists that McNelly again lead the outfit. Meanwhile, a young Philadelphia boy named Lincoln Rogers Dunnison (James Van Der Beek) is witness to his family's massacre when bandits, led by the notorious John King Fisher (Alfred Molina), butcher most of the entire settlement of Las Colinas during a cattle robbery. Dunnison, clumsy as he may be with a pistol, is granted entry into the Rangers along with his newfound friend George Durham (Ashton Kutcher). Now, the Rangers must ride to stop Fisher's Mexican bandits at all costs without sacrificing their own laws, sense of justice, and morality along the way.

Texas Rangers strings together the basics of a coherent plot -- edgy "good guys" aim to kill them some rough-and-tumble "bad guys" -- and it's amazing that the movie succeeds even to that extent given just how sloppy the rest of it really is. The movie is technically well made on a very superficial level, but that's about where all of the good starts and stops. There's a general lack of polish, or more specifically the movie sports poorly-written characters, equally egregious casting, sloppy editing, no rhythm, and a general lifelessness that sees the movie at its best going through the motions and at worst not quite sure of what to do with itself. It can never decide if it wants to be a pure Western or a pure Action movie that just so happens to play out in a Western setting. It seems to favor the latter, for the story would have been just as dull and generic were it set in pretty much any time period. This is a classic case of a movie forcing itself onto some halfway interesting and historically-based event. It seems poorly researched at best, content to just throw a lot of actors, horses, gunfire, and general period-themed production values at the idea and call it "good." The end result is a film that never finds a stride, a film that clearly aspired to greater heights but that succumbed to shoddy work at every level of the production.

Maybe the most awkward piece of the Texas Rangers puzzle is its cast. Though its roster lists an almost endless string of "name" performers, there's more to a movie than just throwing high-paid actors at a problem. Names like Alfred Molina, Dylan McDermott, Tom Skerritt, and Robert Patrick simply can't do much good if they're working through a script that's in shambles, that fails to develop its characters and, worse, barely has a pulse. But those are secondary players, anyway, to the movie's duo of fresh-faced youngsters, James Van Der Beek and Ashton Kutcher. Can two heartthrobs not necessarily known for their Action or Old West prowess carry a movie that's both? Van Der Beek is steady in the part, at least, though he displays little range, playing the character pretty much the same whether witnessing his family's murder or riding with the Rangers and certainly never trying to find the character so as to breathe a little life into him. The usually-reliable Kutcher, however, flubs the performance, though as is the case with every other actor in this or any other poorly-scripted film, it's hard to fault him when the script leaves him hanging high and dry in every scene. But Kutcher seems content to wander around the screen blissfully unawares with a goofy grin on his face or prance around slack-jawed for who knows what reason. Randy Travis is the closest thing to "Western ready" as there is in the movie, and that's only because he already wears boots and a hat for a living. Outside of Kutcher, the cast performs adequately, but there's no chemistry between the actors and no real life to any of the characters.

Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Texas Rangers' 1080i Blu-ray transfer is neither all that good nor all that bad. Everything about the transfer screams "format mediocre." It yields improved definition and stability over standard definition material, but it lags far behind superior format transfers. It's often soft but at the same time it occasionally boasts sturdy, nice looking details, usually on stubbly Van Der Beek and McDermott faces. On the flip side, rustic terrain, natural vegetation, and like barely scrape by, yielding unimpressive clarity and no pinpoint detailing. Colors are neither faded nor vibrant, but black crush is cause for concern during nighttime scenes. This transfer displays a few edge halos, random but infrequent pops and speckles, and slight blocking. Grain isn't readily evident, but the image doesn't appear to have been scrubbed to any disastrous degree. This is one of those transfers that, yup, is definitely in high definition, but it also definitely comes up well short of what the format is capable of achieving.

Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Texas Rangers features a DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack that would have been much better if given a wider 5.1 option. While it delivers fair spacing across the front, the track never feels like it opens up as wide as it would like. Whether ambient falling rain and thunder at the beginning, natural atmosphere in various outdoor scenes, or fever-pitched gunfights, that track seems to have all its ducks lined up in a row but never manages to deliver an impressive listen. Gunfire is authoritative and loud, but listeners will never feel like a participant in the mayhem. A heavy carriage rolls from back to front, but the effect remains grounded in the center speaker. General loud sound effects lack clarity and a precision low end. The track attempts to cover it shortcomings by delivering a lot of loud noises, but it never really escapes its 2.0 limitations. Dialogue, fortunately, is consistently clear, focused in the center channel, and never lost under the surrounding elements. This could have -- should have -- been a better track, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Texas Rangers is as dry as Texas in a drought-plagued summer. No extras are included.

Texas Rangers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Texas Rangers is a real snoozer of an Action movie. It takes an already troubled script and throws name actors and gunfire at it in hopes of solving, or at least masking, the problems that already exist. Fail. This isn't the worst movie ever made, but it sure is a forgettable one. Bad characters, a general sense of aimlessness, and the most basic plot in the history of plots (see the bad guy, shoot the bad guy) make this movie a well-deserved flop. Echo Bridge's Blu-ray release of Texas Rangers features mediocre video and audio and no extras. Skip it.