I found James Garner's character to be humorless, grouchy and cold. The exact opposite of his Maverick character. It was interesting to see the familiar character actors, and great to see a young Suzanne P. - but I won't be renting the original "Sheriff" based on this viewing.
The View from the Slums of Norristown, PA
You should do it. It's a funny movie. If you like westerns and comedy you will definately like it.
You can thank me later. :)
On the other hand .....
The tone and style is similar enough between the two Support Your Local ... movies that if he really disliked this one, then I'm not sure how much more he is likely to like the other.
If he liked the basic tone and style of this one but found it to be only "pretty good", then I could see the possibility of liking Sheriff significantly more than this one. But if he really disliked one, he probably won't be too enamored of the other.
You know, i dont know, i was watching today Support...sheriff on tv and i liked what they were trying to do. i moved to buy it off of Amazon. the only complaint was that one of the brawls in the mud at the beginning of the movie seemed to take ten minutes, but other than that, i liked what i saw. Garner is just mellow enough to make you think he wont get hurt, dealing with these dangerous types, while on the other hand, i saw bits and pieces of Support...Gunfighter and i did not like the way that was directed. too much farce, and i have a feeling that the films are very different despite the obvious attempt to appear like a sequel. So i would ask that you at least rent Sheriff because it's definitely much better than the schlocky Gunfighter, even though i haven't seen either complete film.....yet
shareI've loved Sheriff since I was a kid, and it's still funny to me even now after many many viewings. I was excited to finally catch Gunfighter on tv, and I found it very disappointing. It was cool that there were several of the same actors in both films, especially the very unique Jack Elam; but this movie just wasn't funny at all to me. I too found Garner's character to be grouchy, cold & unsympathic & really didn't care one way or another what happened to him. I don't know what exactly it was about this movie that didn't work, imo, especially when the first was GREAT, but I was glad when this movie ended.
"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl
I don't know. It's not just the same actors. It's the same actors doing the same schtick.
Garner doing his laid back (and too cool for everyone else in this town) bit.
Elam doing his slightly dim bulb, often confused bit (but endearing because he knows that he's not too bright).
Morgan doing his pompous blowhard bigwig in a small pond bit.
What you're mostly trading out are:
Hackett out and Pleshette in as the love interest. (Nothing against Hackett, but I've always liked Pleshette on screen. How much that is just because I went all through my adolescence with her on The Bob Newhart Show, I don't know.)
Brennan out and Dehner in as the lead "bad guy". (Give this one to Brennan. However, I also grew being used to seeing Dehner doing this "fun villain" schtick in a bunch of sitcoms and Disney movies, so I was used to him going in.)
Gunfighter also adds Dub Taylor (who I've always enjoyed) and Blondell (who has been fun in movies going all the way back to the Pre-Code era). Of course, Sheriff adds Dern to the mix, and he does provide some fun in a style that is a bit lower key and subtler than Taylor and Blondell.
Granted that, while Garner is doing the same schtick (delivery, comic timing, type of punch lines) in both, in this one he is much more overtly a con man who could be viewed as cheating people out of their money. I can see how that might turn some people off.
Me too. I expected it to be funnier but Garner just seemed to be yawning his way through it. Course the script was bad to begin with. So many comedic actors wasted.
shareGarner is more like his "Maverick" character in SHERIFF so you'd probably like it more than this later film. The films arent sequels nor the characters the same.
sharebut I won't be renting the original "Sheriff" based on this viewing
Then you'd be doing yourself a disservice as Support Your Local Sheriff is actually funny and highly entertaining, full of witty dialogue and great performances, especially when compared to this film.
You would have been better served watching Support Your Local Sheriff and skipping this one outright.
Gunfighter is funnier than Sheriff. Elam is hilarious. And Pleshette was a much better actress and much funnier than Hackett was. I saw Gunfighter first and was a little disappointed when I saw Sheriff later on because it just didn't have quite the humor in it like this one does, but both were very similar. And contrary to what someone else said, obviously Gunfighter is a sequel whether it said so on the movie poster or not.
share