The Cowboy Way (1994)

The Cowboy Way (1994)

The Cowboy Way movie storyline. Buddies Pepper Lewis (Woody Harrelson) and Sonny Gilstrap (Kiefer Sutherland) who are championship rodeo partners travel to New York to find their missing friend, Nacho Salazar Joaquín Martínez after he disappears in New York City to pick up his daughter, Theresa (Cara Buono). When Pepper and Sonny find that neither is anywhere to be found, they go about the wacky adventure of finding Nacho and Theresa, and in the process, test the foundation of their friendship.

Along the way, they find themselves entwined in the inner workings of a New York sweat shop where Theresa has been enslaved after traveling to the U.S.A. from Cuba. Going about doing things in a cowboy way, Pepper and Sonny put their small town skills to the test in a big city kind of way and rescue Theresa from the thugs.

The Cowboy Way is a 1994 American action comedy crime film directed by Gregg Champion and starring Woody Harrelson, Kiefer Sutherland, Dylan McDermott, Ernie Hudson, Cara Buono, Marg Helgenberger, Tomas Milian, Luis Guzmán and Angel Caban.

The Cowboy Way (1994)

Film Review for The Cowboy Way

“The Cowboy Way” is a weak rehashing of the “Crocodile Dundee” gimmick: two modern-day cowboys taming the Wild East. The tired formula may still have some life left in it, but not this “Way.” This dud ranch is saddled with the charisma-free teaming of dumb guns Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland.

Estranged former rodeo roping team partners Pepper (the dim, irresponsible one, played by Harrelson) and Sonny (the crankily dutiful one, played by a bored-looking Sutherland) leave the New Mexico range to rescue distressed damsel Teresa (Cara Buono), daughter of their old Cuban buddy Nacho.

Teresa’s been smuggled into Manhattan by sweatshop operators and held for extra ransom. The baddest of the baddies (Dylan McDermott, overdoing a Snidely Whiplash impression) takes a shine to Teresa, and keeps her for himself. The bickering buddies are helped out in their quest by a New York cop who wishes he was a cowboy (we’ve all run into him, haven’t we?). Chases ensue. On horseback, in gridlock traffic, naturally.

Too many of the Marlboro Men-in-mean-Manhattan scenes are lassoed and yanked straight of “Midnight Cowboy”; for instance, at a “decadent” penthouse party, Pepper gets tapped by a predatory fashion scout to model Calvin Klein underwear. And the meager fish-out-of-water hijinks — Pepper and Sonny are rude in the Waldorf-Astoria, Pepper and Sonny camp out in Central Park — aren’t nearly as funny as director Gregg Champion wishes. This witlessly silly action-comedy has too little of either. Just say no “Way.”

The Cowboy Way Movie Poster (1994)

vThe Cowboy Way (1994)

Directed by: Gregg Champion
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kiefer Sutherland, Dylan McDermott, Ernie Hudson, Cara Buono, Marg Helgenberger, Tomas Milian, Luis Guzmán, Angel Caban
Screenplay by: Rob Thompson
Production Design by: John Jay Moore
Cinematography by: Dean Semler
Film Editing by: Michael Tronick
Costume Design by: Aude Bronson-Howard
Set Decoration by: Leslie A. Pope
Art Direction by: William Barclay
Music by: David Newman
Distributed by: Universal Studios
Release Date: June 3, 1994

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