Review of The Mountie (2011) by Jon T — 12 May 2014

The first thing you have to know is that the summary for this is not only poorly written, but also fairly inaccurate. It doesn't really matter, however, as the summary only vaguely sets up the fact that there's a Mountie (obvious) and he has to fight some bad guys (also obvious). So the fact that the summary still manages to be so inaccurate is kind of baffling.

As for the movie: It's a pretty good looking film almost by default because of the beautiful barren landscape where it takes place. The tone here is melodrama all the way and its effect is intensified by the wooden performance of the lead. He delivers every line with the same tone and appears to be the proud owner of a single grim expression. The rest of the cast aspires to broad clichés, to match the stilted dialogue. None of them bother to generate any chemistry as the effort probably seemed pointless for a film made of such tired beats and scenes.

There are many poor choices here. We've got villains who seem to think every act of violence they commit is worth a mean chuckle. A woman who is shot in the chest, so at the end you see she now has to walk with a crutch. A child doing several mind numbing recitals of Robert Service.

Basically, this is an uninspired and unambitious film that doesn't even succeed at what it attempts. Quite disappointing.