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(More customer reviews)The marketers positioned this movie as a love triangle between sibling rodeo cowboys (Kiefer Sutherland and Marcus Thomas) and a girl (Daryl Hannah), which is about as wide of the mark as missing the broad side of a barn. The key character who drives these brothers apart is their father, a champion bull rider, long retired, and long absent from their lives, played terrifically in a cameo performance by British actor Pete Postlethwaite. The old man gave all his attention to the one who took after him and scorned the other, who had the more tender heart. Then he left home, at the wrong end of a shotgun, pointed at him by the boys' mother, played wonderfully by Melinda Dillon. But his impact continues to be felt.
Both boys grow up to become bullriders, like their father. Only one (Sutherland) opts out and turns his talents to being a rodeo clown (bull fighter) and raising rodeo stock, specifically a fierce bull that no cowboy can ride. Like the old man, the bull does his damage, but not before one of them has suffered a near-fatal accident after being named Rookie of the Year and then returns to the circuit against the wishes of brother, mother, and girlfriend (Molly Ringwald). Celia (Daryl Hannah), a barrel racer figures in there rather briefly as one of several things that estrange the two brothers. There's also pill popping, groupies, and angry outbursts. The two men are finally reunited and reconciled at the national bullriding finals in Las Vegas.
From what I know of rodeoing, and it's not extensive, the representation of life on the circuit is pretty accurate. The slow motion photography used to heighten the dramatic tension during the rides is realistic only if you think of it from the perspective of the riders themselves, for whom eight seconds can surely seem close to an eternity. There's some depth to the script, and scenes are played in a way that let the characters seem more three-dimensional than your usual cowboy-hero movie. Sutherland, in fact, is interesting to watch as a self-conscious man who goes all clumsy around a woman he'd like to impress. Thomas needs only to look lean, a little haunted, and good in a pair of wranglers to convey the troubled, driven man who cannot stay away from a sport that has already nearly killed him. And he does all that nicely.
Compared to a rodeo movie like "8 Seconds," about real-life bullrider Lane Frost, this one is not so predictable, a little grittier, less sentimental, and it doesn't go overboard in glamorizing rodeo. Here, for instance, the lovers split up and stay that way. In Garth Brooks words, "that damned old rodeo" takes its toll on everyone.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Cowboy Up (2000)
Two brothers, one a bull rider and the other a rodeo clown, compete for the love of the same woman.Genre: Feature Film-Action/AdventureRating: PG13Release Date: 3-AUG-2004Media Type: DVD
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