Maverick (Mel Gibson) is a charming gambler who needs $25k to enter a poker tournament with at least half million at stake. It's happening in a few days on a steamboat run by Commodore Duvall (James Coburn). Maverick is a quick draw and one of the best card player. He encounters other characters like the macho Angel (Alfred Molina), the sexy con Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner). The tournament is not just about the money but a challenge to his abilities. It's one misadventure after another as he tries to gather the money together.It's a good fun western that has a nice comfortable charm. To emphasize that, director Richard Donner got 'Lethal Weapon' cohort Danny Glover to play a cameo as a bank robber. By no means is this a gut busting comedy. The best thing is the great chemistry between the film's trio.

Love this film. It's silly, funny, irreverent and clever, and does not take itself seriously at all. Mel Gibson is at his most charming and irrepressible, and Jodie Foster dazzles as con-merchant and petite-criminal Annabelle Bransford, Bret Maverick's "nemesis" in the story. The plot is simply that Bret has to secure $25,000 to enter a poker tournament and he has some trouble raising the money given Annabelle trying to rip him off and Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner - the original TV Maverick) doing his best to stop him getting to his destination. Bret is a fast-thinking, fast-talking trickster who's friendship with local Native American Indian Joseph (the brilliant Graham Greene) gets the trio out of a tight spot and also makes for the funniest scenes of the film. Some great stunts, amazing one-liners and a shocking disregard to the amounts of money they have pass through their hands (given it's set in the 1800s) make this an enjoyable, charming and pleasing film.Amusing cameo from Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon)

Maybe it wasn't really like this in the Old West but this film does fill me with the hope that at least sometimes it had these moments. This film is pure entertainment, not a historical documentary and certainly not, at any point, to be taken seriously. Maverick's (Mel Gibson's) character as a likable rogue had a surreal and very believable chemistry with Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and a pleasant nod to the "original" maverick that old standby, James Garner.The humour is firmly tongue-in-cheek and Foster does indeed "do southern" very acceptably and looks as radiant as any woman in the role could. Her unique brand of energy, injured innocence, scheming minxicity (I made that up) and twangy edginess give the part a solid and definitive profile. No man of Maverick's marque (or any other for that matter) could resist chasing a temptress of such charm, beauty and duplicity through a hundred countries to get his money back and would indeed have a wonderful time doing it.I'm not a Mel Gibson fan but this exceptional part was cast against type and Mel performed very well. As I said, the chemistry between Mel and Jodie is tangible, perhaps because they're close friends off-screen as well.Garner is solid, if a little pedestrian (don't mistake it for gravitas Mr. G), but since he's already got his (metaphorical) halo it's hard to find fault with him and particularly for his acceptably human (if feigned) reluctance to join a firefight with a bunch of drunken outlaws. Joseph (Graham Greene) is outstanding as is Angel (fellow countryman Alfred Molina who has proved himself many times since) as the kind of necessary semi-villain/rogue types that help show Maverick, no angel himself, in a slightly less predatory light.This film pretends to be nothing but what it is and that stands to its eternal credit. There's no doubt, given the cast performances, that this film was a hoot to make. Such films are vital to lighten our moods from the sombre turns they can take sometimes by reminding us that probably it was much worse in the past, and for exactly that reason, it might also have been quite a bit better.

Technically, "Maverick" is the big screen version of the classic TV show, which, like the movie, starred James Garner. As a film, it's a mixture of adventure and screwball comedy. These two genres are not immune to mixing, in fact the Golden Age of Hollywood was filled with movies like this. Unfortunately, the attempt to recreate this kind of a movie is not entirely successful.Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson) is a professional gambler in the Old West who is looking to enter in huge poker game with a $500,000 pot. Unfortunately, he's $3,000 short. So, with his would-be companions, a pickpocket named Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner), he sets out to collect the money that is owed to him by his cronies. Of course, nothing goes quite according to plan.The biggest problem is that the film just isn't that fun. The comedy isn't as clever or as funny as it thinks it is, and the action sequences aren't particularly exciting. Part of the reason is that "Maverick" feels like a series of skits loosely connected by a simple story. The film needed some serious tightening up at the script and filming stages.The art of making an effective screwball comedy has been lost in time, and try as he might, Richard Donner wasn't able to resurrect it. A screwball comedy relies mainly on timing and energy. Donner isn't able to gather the two requirements of the genre to make it work.All three actors are skilled thespians, and neither of them a strangers to comedy. It's not surprising that Gibson, Garner and particularly Foster are effective, but they could have used a better script. Foster is especially delightful as the mischievous Southern belle (or at least that's what she makes herself out to be). James Coburn is good in a small role as the head of the final poker tournament. Character actor Graham Greene fares the best as the Indian fed up with having to act like the cliché of the Indian for a rich foreigner. That scene has some of the biggest laughs (when it doesn't feel like a sitcom).It's not a complete bust, there are some clever moments here and there, and while gut busting laughs are few, there are plenty of moments that are worth a grin. It is however, a little too convoluted for its own good; the twists eventually become too numerous and tiresome, and they drag the movie on for far too long.If anything, "Maverick" proves that there is a difference between attempting at something, and succeeding at it. It accomplishes the former, but not the latter.