Lou Diamond Phillips returns from the Civil War to find his childhood friend Vincent Spano cheating homesteaders of their money, property, and sometimes their lives as well. Things heat up when Phillips helps his father Stacy Keach out of Spano's crooked scheme, a scheme that demands Keach's homestead.Lone Rider is fairly derivative, though well produced, with good photography and direction. I can't help but like it, though I wish the straight-forward script were both more complex and lively.As far as the players go, Phillips and Keach are always entertaining, whatever they're in, while Spano makes a good villain, even though we never find out exactly what makes his character tick.Tom Schanley, who plays Phillips' Army buddy, stands out among the supporting players. Although I don't know him as an actor, he's pretty good.The title of Lone Rider is a misnomer, as Phillips doesn't do much riding and has plenty of help throughout the movie.

In LONE RIDER, I was hoping for another A GUNFIGHTER'S PLEDGE. That is to say, a made-for-TV yarn with a name actor in the lead and all the trappings of a good old-fashioned, gunslinging tale of the Old West. What I got here was utter boredom, including the big shootout near the end. Lou D. Phillips returns from the war to the family homestead, only to discover an old friend (Vincent Spano) is buying up everybody's property and running them off. The plot as such is the same as A GUNFIGHTER'S PLEDGE, which saw Luke Perry as a former sheriff defending a widow's ranch against a land-grabbing evildoer (played by a black-clad, mustache-twirling C. Thomas Howell). We run into immediate problems in LONE RIDER: as much as I like Phillips, he doesn't ring true as a soldier-turned-civilian in the Old West. He's too clean-shaven and nicely groomed. Also, Spano acts like he's reading his script for the first time, and is unconvincing as an old friend-turned-enemy. Likewise, Stacy Keach playing Phillips' dad reads his lines (trite as they may be) so flatly, you have to believe he knew what a turkey he got himself into here. The two females leads are generic and forgettable. Also, no matter what Spano does, including beating up Phillips' cousin and later killing his dad, Phillips just sort of sits around, doing nothing -- until the very end, at least, when there is a badly staged and photographed gunfight. Luke Perry, who did feel like a real cowboy in his TV movie, would have made the bad guys pay dearly a lot sooner and a lot swifter. I have a feeling this may have been shot in Canada, which is always a mistake. Everything seems to be moving under water, which is typical of Canadian-lensed TV movies.

If not for Lou Diamond Phillips this would be a mediocre made for TV western. Phillips plays Bobby Hattaway, a decorated soldier on his way home to the family business and his long time sweetheart. Bobby finds that his childhood friend Stu Croker(Vincent Spano)has pretty well taken control of every business in town and holds mortgage on Bobby's dad's homestead and mercantile. Plus he has wed Bobby's sweetheart Connie(Cynthia Preston)and treats her like trash. There is hell to pay when the elder Hattaway(Stacy Keach)is murdered. Bobby's army buddy(Tom Schanley)arrives in time to help take the town back from Croker. Also in the cast: Angela Alvarado, Terry Maratos and Mike Starr.

In Lone Rider Lou Diamond Phillips returns to his small Texas town after war service and looks to settle down with his family. When he left there before the Civil War his parents and cousin had a prosperous ranch and a mercantile in town.But while he's been away, a boyhood friend has become the town boss and is looking to take over the ranch and the mercantile. Lou's father Stacy Keach has borrowed for the store with a loan on the ranch which boyhood friend Vincent Spano wants paid in full.Spano's moving on a few fronts in that town and in the tradition of many westerns the town looks for a champion and Lou fills the bill.Lone Rider reminds me a whole lot of some of the Anthony Mann/James Stewart westerns of the Fifties. Phillips is playing a part that half a century ago Jimmy Stewart would have been playing. In fact there are distinct plot elements from The Far Country and Bend of the River in Lone Rider.And fifty years ago Lone Rider would have been released on the big screen when westerns had more of a market and would have been acclaimed and enjoyed.But for western fans like your's truly, we still enjoy them.