The movie commences with Bill Hammond (Noah Emmerich) arriving home to his ranch near death with a warning for his wife Jane (Natalie Portman) that ‘The Bishop boys are coming’. A good start which had my interest. So while we don’t know who these Bishop boys are Jane feels the need to bring her child away to safety and to try and locate somebody who will help her defend her home since her husband is incapacitated and this leads her to her ex lover Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) who initially rebuffs her request as Jane previously abandoned him after he went off to war but when Jane is attacked in town he comes to the rescue and decides to assist.

Now is where the movie starts to slow as, while Jane and Dan are building traps and adding defences around her home a number of flashbacks begin which, while building the back story of their previous life and which shows us why the Bishop Boys and in particular their leader John Bishop (Ewan McGregor) are out for blood, it takes away from the tension of the impending attack and could have been kept to a more minimal number as they felt like filler on occasions. But, once the climax does comes it’s done with aplomb and in parts reminded me of the final shootout in L.A.Confidential.

Edgerton plays his part well as a man torn between helping this former flame or turning his back on her as he feels she did on him, Portman keeps it simple but does a good job in portraying Jane as a smart and strong woman and McGregor is almost unrecognisable as the villain but pulls it off seamlessly. So while it’s a good attempt to make a straight out western, it just seems little underwhelming and lacks a little something to push it above anything other than an average movie.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 out of 10