As old-fashioned shoot-'em-up Westerns go, "Texas Rangers" is not bad. Aside from being in color and starring James Van Der
Beek, it is hardly different at from the dusty old flicks that starred the likes of John Wayne or Lee Marvin. No one in "Texas Rangers" ever actually says, "This town ain't big enough for the two of us," but you can tell they want to. James Van Der Beek plays Lincoln Rogers Dunnison, an educated Philadelphia transplant whose family is killed by cattle rustlers in 1875, prompting him to join the newly re-formed Texas Rangers. The Rangers are led by Leander McNelly (Dylan McDermott), a former preacher who suffered trauma in the Civil War and is now hell-bent on punishing the wicked before he dies. Dunnison becomes McNelly's right-hand man, urging moderation against McNelly's kill-them-all-let-God-sort-them-out brand of justice. I just realized I made the emotional conflicts in the movie sound more interesting than they actually are. Sorry about that. In truth, those elements are in place, but the film doesn't do much with them. Why develop the Flawed Hero theme when it's so much easier to put white hats on the good guys, black hats on the bad guys, and let the Laws of Westerns take effect?
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