Ghost Rock - Fight For Justice (2004)

Starring

Gary Busey

and some people who are not Gary Busey.

Including

Michael Worth

Jeff Fahey

Adrienne Barbeau

Jenya Lano

James Hong

Michiko Nishiwaki

Written by:

 Michael Worth(Screenplay) and Dustin Rikert (story)

Produced and Directed by

Dustin Rikert

 

 

  When raiders hit a homestead, a young boy sees his brother and the girl he likes brutally gunned down.

  Twenty years later gunfighter John Slaughter hears that his old hometown of Ghost Rock has fallen into the hands of evil mayor "Black Jack" Pickett and rides to the rescue. 

 Meanwhile a mysterious gun-toting blonde woman has also arrived in Ghost Rock with her own mission. 

  As far as I can tell, this only seems to have been released in Germany so how the DVD turned up in a Portsmouth charity shop is probably...not that interesting so let's move on.

  Michael Worth, Jeff Fahey  and Jenya Lano were also in "Warrior or Assassin" (Review HERE if you're interested) and like that film what we have here is a curious low-budget effort with some interesting touches, dialogue trying too hard to be clever and/or profound and a big gunfight at the end.

  This film does have a higher-powered cast though, and is all the better for it. Gary Busey chews the scenery like a good-'un, getting increasingly wild-eyed as the film goes on and his character gets more pissed off.  Truth be told, he's probably the most interesting thing in this flick. There's also a nice little turn from Adrienne Barbeau as a brothel madam with a fierce right hook. 

 Incidentally, I was slightly surprised to see Michiko Nishiwaki in the cast list as she doesn't seem to do much beyond a throwaway, one-hit KO - and I only realised it was her after I saw the credits.
 Leads Michael Worth and Jenya Lano do an OK job but again, this is Busey's picture all the way. 

 There's brief action sequences scattered across the film, just enough to keep it from getting too talky, but the best is very definitely saved for last as Worth, Lano and their allies go up against the bad guys in a battle that combines old-school Western B-movie gunplay, a bit of Kung-fu and sneaks in John Woo's trick of having people leaping about while firing two handed. Daft but dang, fun to watch.

 So, my opinion would be: Could have been better but a  decent way to kill an hour or so.

And now some piccies.

  John Slaughter - badass gunslinger, although you wouldn't think it looking at this pic.

 One of Pickett's henchmen tries to be all hard and stuff not realising 

that his hat marks him forevermore as "Comic relief"  It's sad, really. 

Why do Western villains insist on surrounding themselves with idiots? 

Enquiring minds want to know. 

One of the saloon girls has come up with a new way to make money.

"I call it lapdancing" she tells him.

I'm not making this up.

Ah. The striking Jenya Lano. I think I preferred her as a redhead though.

Black Jack Pickett explains to John Slaughter that Ghost Rock is now his town 

and maybe annoying him isn't a good idea.

How much notice do you think John takes?

None whatsoever.

There is, presumably, a good reason why Pickettt didn't just kill John on sight.

The bad guys interrupt Jenya's bath. She does not react well. 

In fact, she gets out of the bath and lays a killing on each and every one of them 

while butt naked and dripping wet.

 The camera stays carefully focused on her head or feet the whole while. Shame.

Gary Busey displaying the tightly controlled performance for which he is justly famous.

 The good guys saunter into town ready for the final showdown. 

 Which includes a kung-fu fight... 

 Stuff blowing up..

A move blatantly nicked from John Woo.

And Comic Relief Guy getting hoofed in the knackers.

Let's have one more pic of Jenya to finish off.