MOVIE: The Old Way

STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Noah Le Gros, Clint Howard, Dean Armstrong, Kerry Knuppe, Shiloh Fernandez, Abraham Benrubi

RELEASE DATE: January 6th, 2023

WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Vudu, Amazon Prime, Redbox, Apple TV)

By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)

New year, new Cage! That’s how the saying goes, right? Anyway, sorry for the hiatus, but I am back with more Nicolas Cage goodness. Starting off with what I believe to be his first western ever that came out beginning of this year, The Old Way.

The plot of this film is Colton Briggs (played by Cage) was an outlaw and murderer. After killing the father of a young James McCallister, he unintentionally set in motion James’s revenge plot. 20 years later, James McCallister (played by Noah Le Gos) finds the home of reformed Colton Briggs, and murders his wife as a message. Briggs and his daughter, Brooke (played by Ryan Keira Armstrong) then set out to find James and his gang and take them down once and for all.

The plot is as simple as it can be. A revenge western that makes Briggs feel like a cowboy version of John Wick. Brooke’s character development throughout the film felt shoehorned and out of place for me personally. She is made out to be this unfeeling, emotionless child that is supposed to mirror her father. Sadly, it’s not very flushed out and was made to try to add more to this simple story. James McCallister also feels like a one-note villain, whose whole motivation is to take everything away from Briggs. It felt very old school, but not in a good way. You’ve seen this kind of plot over and over again. With a run time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, I know they were just trying to finish the story. You can already see the writing on the wall on how it will play out.

Overall, for a western, it’s fine. Cage does a decent job. But because of how simple it is as a whole, this film sits at the lower end of OK on the Nic Gauge.