Maverick

This movie really stinks. The humor is sad, the plot is predictable, the script unoriginal and most of the acting (if it can be called that) is centered around Mel Gibson making the same facial expressions in every scene. At best it deserves a 1. Lets see, where to begin? 1. Jody Foster's entire role is pointless and could have been edited out to make most scenes less lame. Even the ones she wasn't in. It appeared as if she only stopped by the set on her way to acting lessons. 2. This movie should have been called: Mel Gibson Makes Funny Faces For An Hour And Thirty minutes. 3. What is the actual point? Why have Mel win, the Dad then steal the money to only meet up with Mel anyway? Why didn't Mel just win and he meet his Dad afterward? Why even go through the whole thing in the first place? 4.Why was Alfred Molina the bad guy? He was just doing the job he was hired to do! He was the only guy who wasn't a scum bag! Having said that, Molina's outfits were ridiculous to the point of pointlessness 5.Was this movie about awesome scams or was it about Mel Gibson making faces? 6. The entire scene with the 'friendly natives' acting as a side show for a dim-witted Russian prince was even more pointless then Jody Fosters role and Molina's costumes combined. I'd rather eat broken glass covered in lemon juice then ever watch this complete waste of physical matter again. I'll never recover those 127 minutes again. Lord help me. I highly recommend that everyone boycott this film and have all copies obliterated.

"Maverick" is based on the popular television series of the same name. The film is pretty faithful to the series as Mel Gibson stars as the big-time gambler. James Garner (the original Maverick) has a great part as a lawman who is tracking Gibson. Jodie Foster is superb as usual. The supporting cast includes Graham Greene, James Coburn, and a short cameo by Danny Glover. The direction and screenplay are both inspired and very impressive. Not perfect, but very close. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Maverick (Mel Gibson) is a charming gambler who needs $25k to enter a poker tournament with at least half million at stake. It's happening in a few days on a steamboat run by Commodore Duvall (James Coburn). Maverick is a quick draw and one of the best card player. He encounters other characters like the macho Angel (Alfred Molina), the sexy con Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner). The tournament is not just about the money but a challenge to his abilities. It's one misadventure after another as he tries to gather the money together. It's a good fun western that has a nice comfortable charm. To emphasize that, director Richard Donner got 'Lethal Weapon' cohort Danny Glover to play a cameo as a bank robber. By no means is this a gut busting comedy. The best thing is the great chemistry between the film's trio.

A fun movie that doesn't try to be anything more than what it is -- an amiable comedy. Mel Gibson can actually manage to be tolerable when he's playing charming, which he does here. James Garner is perfectly cast for quite obvious reasons. And it's nice to see Jodie Foster lighten up and play a feminine character for once -- up to that point, her resume had been quite serious. For some strange reason, I distinctly remember Siskel and Ebert being infuriated that this film won an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. Ah, to live such a charmed life that something like that constitutes a major gripe..... Grade: B

As TV show adaptations go, "Maverick" is a movie that excels because of a rollicking sense of fun and good humor. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and I think everyone involved is perfectly chosen for the job. The film opens with Mel Gibson's eponymous gambler, out to prove he's the best poker player. He's $3,000 short of the $25,000 buy-in, and his quest finds him in an unlikely partnership with like-minded gamblers Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and Marshall Zane Cooper (James Garner). And it's a journey that will see our hero tangle with rattlesnakes, renegade Indians and even a runaway stagecoach. "Maverick" is an Action/Adventure/Western/Comedy that runs high on likability and even a few great setpieces. Everyone involved is clearly having fun, and it goes a long way in inviting the audience in on the laugh. It's the kind of TV show adaptation that doesn't require the viewer to have seen the original show. There's enough here in the engaging protagonist to keep the audience interested in the free- standing story. And what an affable hero Maverick is, a role that greatly benefits from Mel Gibson's trademark boyish charm and joking sense of humor. It's not just Gibson; Foster and Garner also show an unexpected flair for comedy. Maybe the real star of "Maverick" is William Goldman's terrific screenplay; one that infuses the movie with a delightfully wry sense of humor and lightheartedness. In almost every scene, things aren't always as they seem; and it's usually played to great comedic effect. This is the movie that made me a Goldman fan (in my defense, I haven't yet seen his greatest hits, so to speak). I found myself constantly grinning from ear to ear. You don't even have to be a Western fan to appreciate "Maverick". It's just an overall likable movie. 8/10

Mel Gibson can some times irritate me. He's just in your face too much. In this movie however, he's laid back and charming. I'm a fan of westerns, usually those heavy handed types like "The Searchers"and "Little Big Man". I was surprised how much I liked this light-hearted romp through the American West. The movie brings to mind "Blazing Saddles" and "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid". In fact the screen writer wrote the latter film, though this one fells a bit more like "The Sting" with all its cons and scams. I also enjoyed the cinematography and locations. The movie goes from Lake Powell to Owens Valley to Yosemite and a beautiful river boat in Oregon. I may be a bit biased towards this film because I walked the set in Yosemite Valley, but I'm still giving it an 8 / 10.

This is among Mel's best. It has absolutely everything you could want for a hit. Bert...I mean Bret...is a multi-dimensional character that changes from humorous to serious seamlessly. Jodie Foster is an excellent faux-Southern belle. And James Garner plays the veteran lawman to the T. This movie has humor, but not gross-out humor. The tongue-in-cheek, James Bond/Lethal Weapon kind of humor. Like Miss Bransford looking in both of their tubs to "compare" the two, without ever saying anything. It has decent action and suspense, and the last 15 minutes has more plot turns that most mysteries. This is one of my personal favorites, one I can watch over and over again. I believe this gets none of the credit it deserves. It seems to have a stigma because most movies based on TV shows (i.e. Beverly Hillbillies) well, suck.

This movie is one of the most enjoyable movies that you will watch. It's great. Mel Gibson was great for the part as Maverick. He was so funny and since this movie has so many different genres than it's hard for an actor to protray this certain role but Mel Gibson acted great. The movie had action, drama, adventure, comedy, romance and western scenes through out the movie. I think this is like Lethal Weapon in a way. It has a lot of action/comedy which is Lethal Weapon. This was a great movie and I recommend this movie to all viewers who like Mel Gibson and enjoyed the Lethal Weapon series because this movie is almost the same thing besides the plot of the two movies. Mel Gibson was great in both of them.

There's one main reason for tuning in to this loud and bawdy version of the TV show 'Maverick' which originally ran from 1957 to 1962, and that's Jodie Foster. Heaven knows what she's doing in this typically confused confection helmed by veteran hack director Richard Donner but she's a godsend to the movie as a female shyster of dubious reputation, complete with batty eyes and dodgy southern accent ('most gentlemen enjoy my Southern'). There's absolutely no doubt Foster is a terrific actress. Oscars for 'The Accused' and 'The Silence Of The Lambs' as well as grounded performances in genre pieces such as 'Panic Room' are sufficient testimony to that fact. But we rarely see her doing comedy and, on the basis of this performance, she should lighten up more often. As with her dramatic performances, she has great instinct and fantastic timing. With more than a hint of Irene Dunne (another superb comedienne), it's a great pity she's not paired with someone who has better comic abilities than Mel Gibson. This movie has the dubious honour of containing one of Gibson's worst performances. He's much better in dramatic roles ('Year Of Living Dangerously', 'Gallipoli') where he can't show off rather than the action-comedies that he seems to prefer. Unfortunately, he just can't resist these buddy pictures and the cronyism is complete with Richard Donner on board who panders to Gibson's worst instincts. Gibson mugs and apes his way through this and there's no one behind the camera trying to tone him down. Donner is clueless. He seems to think that simply populating the cast with recognisable faces from other similar western TV series is inherently funny. Proof of his lack of subtlety is Danny Glover's embarrassing and completely unnecessary cameo. Double-take, followed by triple-take - apart from being totally humourless, I'm surprised we weren't treated to flashing subtitles saying: 'hey look, it's Danny Glover!'. Luckily Gibson's scenes with Foster have a certain amount of frisson to them (as if Gibson momentarily seems to understand that he's dealing with a professional). Also, on the positive side, James Garner (the original Brett Maverick, fact fans) manages to get through it all without embarrassing himself (although he has one or two dodgy moments). This is an undemanding enough waste-of-time if you can stomach Mel Gibson at his worst and a Director about whom David Thomson memorably said: 'Mr. Donner has made several of the most successful and least interesting films of his age. And one doubts it's over yet'.

This is another example of a film apparently made for the sake of simply presenting some popular actors on the screen without any regard towards plot, creativity or story, and then waiting for the box office profits to roll in (which, unsurprisingly, did not happen in this case). The simple attraction of box office stars (in this case Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster) is never an adequate substitute for a reasonable script, and when the actors are aware that they are just along for the ride (and paycheck) the smugness can be unbearable. That describes "Maverick" in a nutshell; (another more recent example would be the remake of "Ocean's Eleven"). In yet another tired remake of a once popular old television show, "Maverick" sports James Garner as its best gimmick: Garner played the title role of the old TV Western "Bret Maverick", in which the smugness and cleverness of the lead character were to take the place of the usual fistfights and gunplay of the standard westerns of the era. In this version Garner is a lawman policing a poker competition (hosted by James Coburn)in which Gibson and Foster intend to participate. The point of the movie seems to be more for the viewers to locate and recognize country singers and other actors who appear briefly in cameo roles and catch other inside jokes (such as the appearance of Danny Glover reciting his catch line from the "Lethal Weapon" movies)than to actually follow the thinly strung together storyline. The film reaches its lowest point (among many such possibilities) with a plot foray involving some handy Sioux Indians, (led by Graham Green, no less, who is his generation's Chief Dan George, appearing whenever an American Indian is called for in a script). Here the smugness requires Indian Chief Green to speak English and generally carry on as any regular 20th Century (white)American might, with the requisite historically anachronistic politically correct "wry observations" on the plight and exploitation of the noble red man with his old pal and confederate Gibson. It's not funny, and in fact is even more pathetic and insulting to the Sioux, and to Green himself when one considers Green's famous portrayal of a noble Lakota in "Dances With Wolves". (Is he parodying himself in advance?) The movie and script are dopey, but without charm. It's a poker game with a stacked deck (metaphorically speaking) with everyone playing to the audience with a wink and a nod. It's as much a western as the old "F-Troop" TV series, but with Gibson's wild-eyed mugging for the camera instead of Larry Storch. The climactic poker game itself lasts just one hand, as the double and triple crosses stumble over eachother long after after should care, and yet the film drags on until its final "surprise". Deal me out.