I heard about this movie nearly two years became it came out. It cost $38M to make but was only released on 400 screens? It grossed $623,000 theatrically. Why? It wasn't a great movie - but it wasn't bad. You'd think Miramax would have at least released it before American Outlaws. Anyone know anything about the reasoning behind this?
shareWow. This movie was so bad, I would have burned all copies if I had been involved in making it. I would assume they held it 2 years hoping it would go away. When they watched it after 2 years and realized it was worse than they thought originally, they figured they better release it before it got even worse.
In all honesty, the acting was ok, the story was sorry, and the photography alternated between ok and pathetic. A couple of scenes looked like absolute mistakes.
I've wondered the same. It was a pretty slick over the top western. A straight faced B movie.
I have an Entertainment Weekly for Feb 2000 where they list their Spring Movie Preview, and Texas Rangers is listed as an April 2000 release and features a publicity still with Van Der Beek and Dylan McDermott on horseback. So obviously this film was done filming in late 1999, and I'm guessing with Dimension's track record, the film tested so so to poor and Dimension decided to re-edit and reshoot noticable portions of the film.
Just my guess, but Dimension kept shuffling the release date and then when American Outlaws tanked at the box office in Summer of 2001, it sorta sealed Texas Rangers' fate to a limited release they were contracted to provide.
Dimension did this many times with decent films. Shuffled them, reshot them, and sat on them for years before pawning them to their doom in throw away theatrical releases. Equilibrium, They, and Texas Rangers. All lost.
It was mangled behind the scenes by none other than Harvey Weinstein. Milius wanted to sell Weinstein to the Taliban which in light of his incarceration, I think few would object.
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