DEAD FOR A DOLLAR MOVIE REVIEW

Dead for a Dollar is an old fashioned western about Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter hired by a wealthy businessman to rescue his kidnapped wife Rachel (Rachel Brosnahan). The poor woman is being held for ransom by Elijah (Brandon Scott), a buffalo soldier and army deserter. Accompanying Max is Captain Poe (Warren Burke), another buffalo soldier who served in the same regiment with the alleged kidnapper, and knows where he’s hiding. Their mission is to cross the border into Mexico and discretely extract Rachel back to the US, but Max soon realizes that the story Rachel’s husband told him was a lie. Rachel wasn’t kidnapped, she ran away from an abusive marriage with the help of Elijah, her black lover. Will Max honor his contract and return Rachel to her jealous, violent husband, or will he risk his own life to protect her? Complicating matters is a vicious Mexican land owner (Benjamin Bratt) who demands a cut of the promised ransom, as well as Joe (Willem Dafoe) a gambler and gunslinger who holds a grudge against Max for having sent him to prison. We were all excited to see a new movie from writer/director/producer Walter Hill whose contributions to tough guy cinema include such classics as The Warriors, 48 Hours, Streets of Fire, and more. This low budget western looks like it was made for just a fistful of dollars, and should have held out for a few dollars more, but was the story, acting, and directing enough to compensate for those deficiencies? Gather around the campfire as Ben, Marcos, Spider-Mike, and Marco discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of this throwback western.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Walter Hill

STARRING: Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe, Rachel Brosnahan, Brandon Scott, Warren Burke, Benjamin Bratt, Hamish Linklater, Guy Burnet

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)

By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.

“You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody!”

 

 

 

Ben Glasthal (Highly Suspect Review, Screener Squad, Breakfast Pub, Unstabletop Gamers, Video and Audio Editor)

Born in Boston, then ending up in Dallas, Texas in the early 2000s, Ben has always had a passion for film. He started in film school not long after where he launched MovieReelizations.com where he still writes reviews to this day. He’s since moved to Austin where he has been also hopping on podcasts and both editing and shooting videos for One of Us. A fan of films from almost all genres, and many that predate him more than makes sense, he is anything if not eclectic in what he’s watching at any point. For the rest of his free time, he can be found biking, drinking craft beer, being an amateur photographer, and playing video games by himself or on Twitch. He’s best found on Instagram or Twitter as @MovieReelBen.

 

 

Marcos Lira (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)

Me? I come from the South, Out there, beyond the horizon by the big river. Out there where the bandits formed cities, and the gambling is legal. I got into movies like most nerds by watching Tarantino but fell in love with movies through Chinese Cinema for some reason. A few of my favorite things would probably be live music, new experiences, and belt-fed ammunition. You can catch this occasional podcaster, occasional other Marco and full-time human on any form of social media by typing jlmarcos62. Hit me up for music suggestions and bad jokes.

 

 

Michael Riojas (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)