How the West Was Fun
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Cast: Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Martin Mull, Peg Phillips, Patrick Cassidy, Ben Cardinal, Michele Greene, Leon Pownall, Georgie Collins.
The blond, saucer-eyed Olsen kids charmingly play scheming twins who cajole their widowed father (Patrick Cassidy) out West in order to protect an old woman's dude ranch from greedy land developers.
The girls, without being saccharine or tiresomely cute, are so focused and watchable they would melt W.C. Fields.
Credit director Stuart Margolin for affable, synchronized achievements with the child stars. Another plus is the enjoyably callow Martin Mull. He plays the nasty son of the sweet old ranch owner (Peg Phillips) who plots behind her back to turn her pristine haven into a raunchy, concrete Western theme park.
Mull's all-out war with the twins, whom he sneeringly calls "little creeps," is the heart of Jurgen Wolff's otherwise pedestrian teleplay.
On the tech side, kudos to production designer Rick Roberts' deliciously detailed model of the projected wonderland of a theme park and to Canadian cameraman Richard Leiterman's occasional grand vistas of the cinematic Calgary country.
Young female viewers will no doubt identify with these resourceful sisters, but, for others, the helming is generally routine and doesn't light up the family/juvenile market.
Camera, Richard Leiterman; production design, Rick Roberts; editor, David Blangsted; costume design, Wendy Partridge; sound, Daryl Powell; music, Richard Bellis. 120 MIN.
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