I couldn't say I like this movie more. I gave it a 10! The characters are very like-able and the story is really good yet simple. Bart(Lou Diamond Phillips) is head of a lawless biker gang that has a strong dislike for cops as you'll see in the beginning. While Bart and one of his biker brothers are on an excursion of violence and mayhem, they encounter John(Sean Patric Flanery), a simple guy from a very small town that works in a wild west show locally. After Bart and Dog, his biker gang companion, rob and beat down smoky their local bartender,Bart makes it clear what will happen to anyone who is witness from his biker brothers. John is the only witness with enough guts to tell the police what he saw and who they were. From here on the story really gets moving. The following day Bart and Dog show up in the mock wild west town John and his fellow bar companions work at. John without really thinking gets the drop on them with his stage gun, a real gun but loaded with blanks. Once in jail Bart uses his one phone call to call some more of his biker brothers who dispatch the sherif and his deputy, setting Bart free. From here on it's John versus the bikers with some help from another West show worker Gus(Robert Forster).Flanery's is very like-able as the character John. John's not too sure of himself in the beginning and just in general but finds his inner courage when he is confronted with the harsh realities that a small town such as his never see. Phillips I think has made a great accomplishment with his portrayal of Bart. Evil to the bone but somehow you still like him. Bart feels a connection with John as if John is his soul opposite or something along that line. John couldn't do more to show Bart he is connected to him in no way and is determined to make sure Bart doesn't find an untimely death and serves out his life in prison. Forster as Gus is somewhat of a rougher good guy and is very cool. An excellent supporting role to Flanery and the theme of the movie. This movie is simply too good to be a B movie. I would have payed to see it and infact bought the DVD.This film shows a solid script with some imagination can produce a very good movie on a low budget. I wish more movie exec's would catch on to this and stop showing the brainless, tasteless garbage in the theatre's that caters to mindless teenagers and young adults that simply have no taste or understanding about what makes a film good. Maybe a little more budget and this film would have made the theatres. You'd be amazed what you can learn about film making from lower brow movies such as Lone Hero. My final statement is this: Story and acting REALLY CAN carry a movie without being all flashy and in a pretty package to get your attention and dollars. This movie is really worth seeing and when you do you may find yourself watching it repeatedly as myself and many others have.

if your waiting for the next john carpenter movie to come out and you stumble across this almost exact remake of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, you might want to give it a go... Lou Diamond Phillips is pretty okay here, better than he was in ROUTE 666 (which was god awful) and about the same as he was in BATS. But his performance in The Big Hit really smokes this. you might also want to catch RAISING ARIZONA if you like the deranged motorcycle part as well... all in all, a movie to watch on tv, but dont pay to see it. B-Movie all the way!!!

This film drew me in from the start. I like the idea of a small town that makes its living putting on old-fashioned Wild West shows, that is suddenly faced with a gang of renegades not unlike the old Clanton gang of the real Wild West. Surrounded by thugs, the town, though seemingly armed to the teeth, finds itself paralyzed and seems incapable of defending itself. It's an old theme: civilization vs savagery. How do you deal with bandits on the rampage? How far would you go to take back your town? And, as this film cleverly suggested, is the town *worth* saving? To me, "Lone Hero" follows the tradition of "High Noon" and brings to mind the work of Kurosawa. Sadly, what Hollywood offers today is not remotely what it offered yesterday. "Lone Hero" is an updated Western (a forgotten genre) and it has the kind of black-and-white good-vs-evil morality that harks back to the days of John Wayne. I like the fact that this film actually embraces a moral vision not seen in current cinema (except in films like "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down"): bravery, honor, sacrifice, and yes, though amazingly it seems offensive to some, the notion of machismo - a quality that we've somehow lost (to our detriment).

This movie provides a lot of unexpected fun. Lou Diamond Phillips is great as the leader of a renegade biker gang terrorizing a small town. This has all the classic western themes, transposed to present day. The title character is an actor in a cheesy wild west theme park who is forced to become a hero when all his friends and neighbors show their spineless true colors in the face of real-life danger. Phillips has a great time playing a murderous badass with a devil-may-care attitude and total disregard for, well, pretty much everything. While the premise of total lawlessness and murder in present day America could all seem completely unrealistic (Bart keeps the badges of all the cops he has killed as souvenirs), the remote location and utter insignificance of the pissant town where it takes place make it believable. With the incomparable Robert Forster playing Gus, our hero's only ally, and a bit of a badass himself, the stage is set for the big showdown. Good writing, and well staged action scenes make this a lot of fun to watch. Check it out on HBO.