Product Description

Mel Gibson dons cowboy hat, boots and six-guns to play the roguish, sharp-shooting gambler inspired by the classic 1960s TV western. Along with sexy scam artist Jodie Foster and crafty sheriff James Garner (the TV series' Bret Maverick), Gibson enters a high-stakes riverboat poker game. James Coburn and Graham Greene co-star in Richard Donner's amiable sagebrush saga. 127 min. Standard and Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital Surround stereo, French Dolby Digital Surround stereo; Subtitles: English, Spanish, French.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33555 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Inspired by the 1960s TV series that starred James Garner in the title role, this lightweight Western from 1994 proved to be a surprising box-office hit. Well, maybe not such a big surprise, since it's from the star and director of the Lethal Weapon movies, and operates with a similar combination of mainstream plotting and easygoing humor. Mel Gibson stars as card-playing gunslinger Brett Maverick, who meets up with wily gambler Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and a marshal named Zane Cooper (James Garner, trading his old role to Gibson) on his way to the World Series of poker in St. Louis. Maverick's trying to raise the $5,000 needed to join the high-stakes contest, but that's easier said than done due to a lot of unscrupulous competition and a twisting plot of tricks and deceptions. It's all played for laughs and action, so the movie never wears out its welcome, despite a running time that could've used a good trimming. It's also fun to see the rapport between Gibson and Garner, as if the present and former Mavericks were a kind of surrogate son and father, bonded by their mutual skill in charming and conning their way through tight spots. Director Richard Donner also pays tribute to old Westerns by casting veterans of the genre in cameo roles (including Bert Remsen, Dub Taylor, and Denver Pyle), and Gibson's Lethal Weapon costar Danny Glover pops in for a surprise appearance. None of this really adds up to much since the movie makes no pretense about taking itself seriously, but that's precisely why audiences found it so entertaining. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
The joined-at-the-hip team of director Richard Donner and star Mel Gibson (all the Lethal Weapon movies and Conspiracy Theory) had obvious fun resurrecting the Wild Western comedy television series about a roguish rambler-gambler. Gibson assumes the role of cardsharp Bret Maverick, equally quick with a pair of aces and a pair of guns. Good sport James Garner (who played Maverick on TV) takes another role, as a lawman who travels alongside the hero to a big-money poker game on a riverboat. The real peach in this fruit salad of satire and broad jokes, however, is Jodie Foster, who plays a crafty Southern belle quite adept at poker herself. Sexy, funny, and (from the onscreen evidence) a great kisser, Foster has never been more of a delight. Written by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Richard Donner's big-screen version of the popular TV Western series of the fifties couldn't be called a travesty of a classic, because the original show was itself resolutely un-classic-a genial revisionist take on the genre. The series' hero, Bret Maverick (then played by James Garner), wasn't a paragon of rugged integrity or two-fisted masculinity, but a slick, witty, suspiciously well-dressed gambler, whose pained reluctance to do what a man's gotta do was the show's richest source of comedy. The new Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson) is still a charmer, but an antsy, wild-eyed, motormouthed one, like the deranged daredevil cop that Gibson plays in the "Lethal Weapon" pictures. The whole movie has a frantic quality that seems a poor substitute for the original's sly, relaxed humor. There are a few laughs, but the picture feels awfully long, because almost everyone is trying too hard: the few performers who aren't, like James Coburn and Garner himself (on hand to play straight man to the star), come off best. At a couple of points, Garner has to remind Gibson not to "babble," and the dry old pro gets his laugh so effortlessly that it's impossible not to take his side. Also with Jodie Foster, Graham Greene, and Alfred Molina. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker