Calamity Jane

I am terrible at watching movies at premieres or close to a film is released. Those who know me personally knows it usually takes time for me to see brand new films and im ok with that. I feel no need to see a film as soon as it is released unless it´s been one of The Expendables movies. That is holy ground to me and i need to see them when they get a release date. The Expendables franchise is one of the most beautiful franchises ever created in film history and should be on physical copies in every single home. I did the same thing with every Sharknado film as well, i watched every single film as soon as it was released so sometimes a miracle does happens. If you have read my movie review blog for many years you might have noticed i take plenty of time and don´t review films as soon as they are released. I just pick out what titles i should review and it doesn´t matter if it was over 2 months ago the film came out. What matters to me is that my readers enjoy reading my reviews and so far i have not gotten any complains if im late with any reviews. So with that said, sometimes i like to pick titles that have been out for quite a while and still review them. I did that for example with 2022 horror film Shepherd ( which is really good by the way ) and is worth checking out. But let´s leave this subject for now and talk about women in western films. Women have been a part of western films ever since the beginning of western Hollywood films but mostly as side characters while legendary male actors as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero have been cast as the main characters. That did change in the 1995 western film known as The Quick And The Dead from legendary director Sam Raimi. In this film you see actress Sharon Stone as the lead character Ellen, a female gunfighter who agree to be a part of a duel tournament run by the town´s mayor Herod ( Gene Hackman ). Every duel can only end one way, only one survivor can walk out. This is a really fun western action film where director Sam Raimi uses his very unique camera technique from his past of horror films and adapt it into the western genre. It may have been a box office flop when the film came out but this is one of my personal favourite western films of the 90´s. How many of you have heard of the 1953 western musical Calamity Jane? Well since then there have been several different movie versions based on the character of Calamity Jane, including the 1995 TV mini series Buffalo Girls where legendary actress Anjelica Huston plays Calamity Jane. I have heard about the latest movie version released this year and i decided to check it out. Is this latest film adaptation better than i expected or does it fall within the same trap as Hallmark forgettable releases?

After her husband Wild Bill ( Stephen Amell ) is killed in a poker game, Calamity Jane ( Emily Bett Rickards ) must break out of prison and seek revenge for the death of her husband. On her journey she must face her past as well as an outlaw.

Calamity Jane feels like a TV western movie you could watch at Lifetime, except in this film there is far too much violence and swearing than Lifetime would allow to show in one of their films. Still i would say this reminds you of a similar production where you can tell the budget is limited. I can tell you right away that Calamity Jane doesn´t try a different direction than most western films. It knows exactly what kind if audience it was aimed for and i do have a couple positive things to say and some critisism as well, So we might as well start talking about what i felt could have been better with Calamity Jane and i am a bit surprised that they didn´t research the costume design for this time period better. That doesn´t mean everything looks bad but you can tell that some of the clothes doesn´t really match with the time period. Of course this is not one of the most important details in a film, i just feel that if you are making a western film set within a certain time period in history you probably want to make it look like we are back to that time period where costume design helps making it work. Another detail i feel that this film does is have too much dialogue. If you want the lead female character to be cool as Sharon Stone was in The Quick And The Dead, you should have had more gun shooting scenes included. There are some shooting scenes with Calamity Jane that works, but i think this film could have been more fun if you really would have let her go even more wild. Ok so let´s get to the positive about this film and let me say actress Emily Bett Rickards ( who fans of TV series Arrow will recognice ) as Calamity Jane is the highlight of this film. Not saying the whole cast is bad but she´s one of the few characters that really stick out in this film. I do enjoy the performance of actress Priscilla Faia playing the crazy character Abigail, she actually help some scenes become more enjoyable with her screen presence. The film looks good and i do enjoy the cinematography from Jan Klompje ( who also did the cinematography on the 2016 western film Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story ). Since i have not seen any of the previous Calamity Jane film adaptations not even the one from 1953, i can only judge this film for what we are served. Since the 1953 film was more of a musical western film then this 2024 version definetely show a more serious adaptation of the character. As long as the violence is on and Calamity Jane get the opputunity to show her anger i feel this film have some good moments. In the end Calamity Jones may not give the main character the cool look she should have had but i still feel the film is a solid western film if you can accept a very simple story. Director Terry Miles have directed western films in the past and you can tell he loves this genre, Calamity Jane should please you if you enjoy traditional western stories.

Rating: DDD