Review of Sweetwater (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a dark watch - it has quite a sinister feel to it, with a shadow of foreboding. However, the action side of this Western film is somewhat sporadic. The viewer is left somewhat on tenterhooks, wondering who will 'kick off' next and what may come of it. There is some witty dialogue at times, with things said such as 'go scrub your ass with a cactus brush!' - nice mental image, that(!).

Its reasonably atmospheric but if your keen on fast paced films then this one may bore or distract you as there is a fair emphasis on dialogue heavy scenes. There are one or two potential jump scares too, depending on how nerve-y you may be. There is of course some strong-ish violence shown, bloody violence although the film is for the most part darkly lit, so there isn't a huge amount of detail shown but certainly enough to get the general idea of whats going on, if you know what I mean. There is also a religious aspect to this film, in that numerous crucifixes are shown i.e. Christianity. One of the characters is shown quoting what I assume to be verses from the bible, which is ironic given the dark deeds/violence inflicted on others, which I would certainly assume not to be promoted by the Bible(!) but it does add to the general sinister atmosphere provided. I mention this as it may or may not offend you if you are devoutly religious. The violence is very much comic book in style, with sudden movements and so on. I feel that this film is a mix of action/thriller and a Western and it tries perhaps too much to be both a serious and a flippant film and it doesn't enitrely work. Its an average, alright watch but not quite good as such, I'd say, hence my 5 out of 10 rating.