SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

moonspinner55 Burt Kennedy adapted Max Evans' book and directed this utterly unassuming, pleasant time-filler which keeps tongue-in-cheek and deep thoughts in neutral. Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda play two horse-tamers in Arizona who bond with a bucking roan horse; Sue Ane Langdon and Hope Holiday are two tootsies they tangle with. Sleeper hit from 1965 offers Glenn Ford more room to shine than his co-star; Fonda is so non-aggressive and laid-back, it's easy to forget that he's around. Overall, Kennedy's approach is a bit mundane, and the picture doesn't have a big impact, but the scenery is certainly nice and the ladies--in and out of their clothes--are lively. ** from ****

vfrickey The Rounders is one of those oddly well-crafted movies which seems to have benefited from a fortunate gathering of the stars at its making. Good movie-making alone seems insufficient to account for its success; every frame of the film seems almost hand-painted; every minute scripted with more than common care (if not with up-to-date cinematic technique).Director and screenwriter Burt Kennedy is the center around which this gem of a movie formed - the same wry humor that has characterized most of his movie and TV productions shines through here (Kennedy created a small swath of "Simon and Simon" episodes, a span of "Combat" episodes, little, memorable Westerns like "Dirty Dingus Magee," a little of almost every genre before passing on in 2001.) The cast, though, was one of those companies of actors you didn't often see together in low-budget Westerns then (1965) and still don't often see thirty-some years later. And, for a wonder, every actor and actress - from a remarkable cast - pulled his or her weight.Denver Pyle ("Bull") would go on to anchor "The Dukes of Hazzard" as "Uncle Jesse" after a life in Westerns; Edgar Buchanan (as the irascible "Vince Moore," creator of "that wonderful stuff" in a still located under his barn floor) was just embarking on a long stretch of soft duty as "Uncle Joe" in "Petticoat Junction," plus a number of cameo roles in various other TV and movie projects after spending a good career in movies; Sue Ane Langdon was playing one of a number of sexy/innocent ingenue roles that ran from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, then after a short hiatus, she would go on to play a series of older roles); Chill Wills would stay with the role of tightwad ranch owner "Jim Ed Love" for the movie AND the TV show which spun off of it the following year. "The Rounders - The TV Series" ran in the 1966 and 1967 seasons, not a bad run, considering the two leads were replaced by younger, less seasoned actors (including Patrick Wayne as "Howdy Lewis"); not only do we see Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda as the stars of this rollicking epic but as a bonus, Peter Ford and Peter Fonda (sons of the stars) appear in uncredited roles.The production, if it can be said to have a weak spot, suffers from Disney Disease - that bogus-homespun touch which afflicted Disney's Wonderful World of Color's series of outdoor documentaries (in which announcers with wrinkly, familiar old voices narrated carefully-edited wildlife documentaries in which little baby animals hardly ever got caught by predators). Fortunately, the screenwriter played off of this ambiance for laughs, so that the overall feel is something like "Mister Roberts Goes West." Fonda ("Howdy Lewis")and Ford ("Ben Jones") work well together on screen as a pair of itinerant, half-clever cowboys who seem always to get the worst from every deal they make with Jim Ed Love. Both actors spent time with the novel, apparently, and their performances benefited from the extra work. This compensates for clumsy special effects (clumsily faked double takes from the "plug-head" horse who is the bane of "Howdy's" existence, for example).But "The Rounders'" main failing is also its saving grace - an artlessness which makes the show much more enjoyable (to me, anyway) than if it had been a little more polished. It earns a solid eight out of ten points for a great off-beat Western comedic style. "The Rounders" may just be the last good OLD Western movie; the genre lay in a restless, unquiet coma with brief flashes of lucidity (and a few unlamented "electric westerns") until Clint Eastwood and a handful of other talented directors brought it back to vibrant life. But "The Rounders" is a valedictory for all of those great westerns (and all the not-so-great ones that were worth having, anyway) that Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Denver Pyle and all the rest of those guys gave us.

lancekoz It's true what most commenters here have said...this is well acted by the two leads, and the scenery is spectacular. But the sad sack situations and the outdated sexist humor wears on the viewer after a while, parts of it seeming like a slow version of Benny Hill. The art direction, casting and photography are all so realistic and good, it would have been interesting to see these qualities used on a "real" story about the misfortunes of modern ranchers. There might've been an Oscar in there somewhere if these resources were put to serve a story by one of a number of Western writers, and it would've rung true.

kenandraf Very weak story in this movie's attempt to portray the funny side of modern cowboy life.Good cinematography and but below average directing coupled with bad screenplay and script.Fonda and Close did a great job though and they really looked dashing.Recomended only for Close/Fonda fans and also for big fans of western comedy movies......