Well, we’ve got a definite competitor to the 90s Maverick film in terms of the worst attempt at reviving the TV series. And that’s despite this one has Garner as Bret in it!
Nowhere near the original Maverick TV series
It’s pretty hard to list all the stuff that went wrong here… Because everything did. It’s aimless, pointless, dull, not funny and ridiculous. Whoever has written this one had no interest in and no understanding of the original TV series.
If the 90s film took the concept of Maverick, stripped it out of cleverness and made it super-primitive, with this one no one seems to have any idea of what they are doing. Characters are uninteresting, including Bret himself, ’cause he lacks his trademark quick-wit and humour. He seems to be a bitter, aging man of no particular qualities.
Garner can still play the part, he tries every little chance he gets, but you have to pay attention, since he really doesn’t get many chances and mostly only to have an interesting facial expression for a second or two, since the dialogs are outrageously boring.
The only time a line of dialog sounds like something Bret could have said is when he is talking to an ex-sheriff, offering him a share in the saloon to run it for him, after the sheriff refused to accept the reward money for gunning down the criminals who robbed the bank:
Bret: […] You with your twisted set of values… you won’t accept the reward…
P.s. An elderly, useless and otherwise dislikable poker player seen in the beginning of the film, who is going to live his final days on charity money from Maverick, is no one else, but Doc Holliday himself. No kiddin’.
P.p.s. I haven’t seen the whole series, only the “Lazy Ace” TV film made out of the pilot.
Classic Western Movie Genre 