The Old Way 4K 2023 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Colton Briggs once made a big mistake, and now the past has caught up with him. The danger threatens those closest to him, so Briggs must save his most precious possession--his family--and bid farewell to the past forever.

Review 4K Movie

The holder of the intergalactic status of "an eccentric talent from God and the Devil (combined)", the owner of a whole army of devoted Cage fans, and, perhaps, the boldest acting unicum - Nicolas Cage - in every way and cheerfully manages to keep reminding the world about himself, appearing in various roles. With an impressive list of played characters from the most diverse genres of films behind him, the beloved Uncle Cage has always amazed by his gift of transformation and dedication.

Having acted over the past 10 years mostly in independent, low-budget projects (somewhere forced, somewhere enthusiastically), Cage has always been known for his sheer diligence and desire to bring something to his game that would allow him to tangibly pull off even the most unpromising film with the simplest (and sometimes the dumbest as in "Prisoners of the Ghostland" (2021)) storyline. And the young rising cast of no-names, inspired by his collaboration with Mr. Fucking Cage himself, will be doomed to tell stories about it to their entire environment until their old age. And while film critics with an "unenlightened" audience mostly berate and bombard Cage's projects with negativity (somewhere appropriate), our superstar himself cares little for their opinions. After all, he's just doing what makes him happy. As a consequence, virtually any project is worthy of attention simply for the fact that Nicolas Cage is in it. And today's "Echoes of the Past" is no exception.

"Echoes of the Past" takes its origins with a subsequent unhurried development in the Wild West at a time when lawlessness, lawlessness, lynching and the loose pursuits of bounty hunters in macho cowboy guise with all the shoot-outs were par for the course. Colton Briggs (Cage), a former marksman for whom the normal human feelings of fear and compassion, coupled with the instinct of self-preservation, were always unknown, and tears could only flow when cleaning a bow (and hardly at all), was one of these hunters all his life. Having one day met the only love of his life, the fragile, tender beauty Ruth (Knuppe), Colton decides to put an end to his bloody, dark past and become a simple, diligent family man trying to play the role of loving father to his twelve-year-old daughter Brooke (Keira Armstrong), though carelessly. However, the momentary peace and serenity gained in Colton's life is burned out after the brutal murder of Ruth by a gang of criminals led by James (Le Grosse). Losing his love and the meaning of his life, Colton decides to bring the murderers to justice. In this he is aided by his daughter Brooke.

A specific feature of the Western genre has always acted - a narrow plot framework in which the established order is mixed revolving action (somewhere a pinch ("Unforgiven" (1992) Clint Eastwood), and somewhere the lion's share ("The Magnificent Seven" (2016) Antoine Fuqua), backed by a thriller from the strained pursuit and chases on horseback. The protagonists of westerns are often the kind of "bad guys" of the past, which once promises them a lot of trouble a dozen (or more) years later, out of which all the heroes are already on a patterned path of retribution that has been trampled to the point of no return. So it was in "Echoes of the Past" in its frankly shoddy script with an obvious talentless borrowing of the Western genre template. And if you even try to close your eyes to the shamelessly conducted plotline with "hackneyed revenge" twice, you will be forced to sweat on your heels by trivial, inane antagonists inserted by the principle "that will do", whose intellectual level is much lower than that of the stupid (but not without his charisma) character Depardieu in "The Unlucky" (2003). And if you, as a Cage fan, can still believe in his eternal youth and beauty on screen even 20 years later, then, be that as it may, you could have spared the cast a couple hundred bucks for the cheapest makeup to make the transition in the "20 years later" timeline more convincing. "Echoes of the Past" is certainly far removed in content and form from the grandeur and benchmark of western classics, from Sergio Leone's aged masterpiece "The Good, the Bad, the Wicked" (1966) to more modern ones: the Oscar-winning "Iron Grip" (2010) by the Coen brothers, or Tarantino's "Django Libre" (2012).

Nevertheless, it would be unfair to draw a solely negative line at Cage's, incidentally, debut western of his career. And if Eastwood and Leone are already veteran westerns, it would be foolish to compare their work to this film. Giving Cage the actor's helm as the central force of viewer attraction ensures that "Echoes of the Past" has a good chance of attracting the attention of viewers who want to spend a quiet evening watching something measured and unburdening. The harmonious on-screen chemistry (given the cold-blooded specificity of Briggs' character) between Cage and his on-screen daughter Brooke is beyond praise. The sparse and brief but quite effective realistic gun and revolver shootouts will be received at least at the level of "Wow! That's funny!" Here you'll also be presented with an eye-opening scenic view that enchantingly characterizes the world of the Wild West thanks to the well-coordinated camerawork. And music that sharply fuels all the drama, especially in the scenes with Cage's traditionally killer power play.

"Echoes of the Past" is the seventh revenge film in Nicolas Cage's filmography. Among them were both truly insane and mind-blowing ("Mandy" (2017), "Crazy Ride" (2010)), and mid-level ("Rage" (2014), "Hungry Rabbit Attacks" (2011)), and frankly weak ("Revenge: A Love Story" (2017), "Old Accounts" (2019)). As for today's Echoes? May they belong in the sturdy middle category for admirers of the legendary Cage's work.