The first time I saw The Cowboy Way was when it was on cable for the first time. I can't believe that for how funny it was, I didn't make it a point to see it in the theater. A friend of mine remembered that the trailer made the movie look incredibly stupid. That is something that this movie most certainly is not.
Kiefer Sutherland portrays Sonny Gilstrap and Woody Harrelson portrays Pepper Lewis, two cowboys from New Mexico who compete regularly in rodeos. The underlying story in the movie is their being able to repair their friendship after Pepper deserts Sonny during a national rodeo in Las Vegas. Because of that, Sonny missed out on a chance to win enough money to purchase his own ranch.
Sonny comes to Pepper looking for a loan to go in search of their friend Nacho. Nacho had gone to New York City to gather his daughter who had been smuggled in from Cuba. The man who had her smuggled in (portrayed by Dylan McDermott, now of The Practice) was now demanding more money.
Pepper refuses to allow Sonny to go by himself and accompanies his friend to New York City.
Some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie rely on the running joke that Pepper is not a bright boy. Sonny is a wee bit sharper than him in knowing such things as who William Pickett was. When Sonny is filling Pepper in on why Nacho went to New York, Pepper comments that he wouldn't let his daughter go to Cuba, not realizing that she was born there. Pepper also doesn't know how to shut up, and this also gets them into trouble in a Cuban bar. He fancies himself quite the ladies man, while Sonny is more toned down.
Kiefer Sutherland is often the straight-man to Harrelson's always joking, wise-cracking character. One of the funniest scenes is when they try to talk to a taxi driver in NYC and he speaks back to them in a language they cannot comprehend. Both men agree that it's Italian.
These two men are fish out of water in the big city. You can see their nervousness as they approach it after a long cross country drive and comment on how big it is. Still, they are there to do a job. Even when Nacho turns up dead, they use all of their cowboy know-how to rescue his daughter from the clutches of an evil gangster.
Along the way are a wide variety of laughs. The rodeo scenes are well-done as well. I always like watching that on television, and these are done fairly well probably because Kiefer Sutherland has competed in rodeos himself in the past.
I really enjoyed this movie and can't understand why it didn't do better in theaters. It's a whole lot funnier than some movies I've seen that have gotten better reviews. Even though the story is somewhat predictable, if you want to sit down one evening and watch a movie that's good fun and has some action in it, this movie fits the bill.
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