This movie was really surprising to me. I thought it was going to be a wacky parody of those cheesy old west movies of early Hollywood. It turned out to be more of A comedic expose/documentary about that film era. That is what made all the more fun to watch! Tom Berenger plays Rex, the singing cowboy, who's function in life seems to be to go from old west town to old west town meeting virtually the exact same type of people and situations to the point where he "knows" whats going to happen before it happens. GW Baily plays the town drunk , turned sidekick of Rex, who follows along with astonishment of Rex's cornucopia of old west lore. The supporting players like Andy Grifith and Mary Lou Henner also make stinging observations about the old west movie clichés. One of my favorites scenes is when the evil underlings of Grifith kill their evil boss henchman and bring his dead body to Grifiths house. Grifith asks the unexpected, but really obvious question, "Why don't you bury him? This is A Home, people live here!". It was really a funny scene. This is not a perfect movie and does have some flaws but overall I recommend watching it. You may be pleasantly surprised at the direction this movie takes. Its not what you think it will be.

Rustler's Rhapsody is a salute to those gazillion B westerns made back in the day of the studio system. Even those who were kids back in the day can enjoy this one as satire and as the real thing.

In those days westerns were just churned out because people could not get enough of them. Shot in the outdoors using stock footage over and over and over again lots of fly by night studios just shot out in the country and the plots just seem to run together. Reviewing as many films as I do I can tell you that. If it's a major western with some major stars you remember them, but these B westerns are where the clichés come from.

Just about all of them are used here as Tom Berenger plays the immaculately tailored western hero who just comes to town, rights all the wrongs of the town and then rides on. But here Berenger is facing villains Andy Griffith and Fernando Rey who are up on all the clichés and throw Berenger a few curves. We also find out about the sex life or lack thereof for a cowboy hero, but with Marilu Henner and Sela Ward in the cast one of them will cure that before the film is over.

Back in the day when Mel Brooks offered a role for John Wayne in that other great satire of the western Blazing Saddles Wayne turned him down. But the Wayne family got into this one with Patrick Wayne coming in to play the part of another western hero who's hired by the bad guys. He wars pretty good on Berenger psychologically but Berenger of course takes him on in the end. Wayne looked he was having a great old time in this film.

Rustler's Rhapsody is not as bawdy and outrageous as Blazing Saddles, but it certainly has good entertainment value. It also obeys one rule of the B western from the day. Westerns were often given titles that had nothing to do with the plot as they are here. There's not a bit of cattle rustling in Rustler's Rhapsody.

But there's a lot of fun.

Writer-director Hugh Wilson must have been a big admirer of those gentle, low-keyed western serials from the 1930s and '40s, but how he managed to sell this homage in 1985 is a mystery. Deliberately mild outdoor yarn stars Tom Berenger as a singing cowboy and Andy Griffith as a corrupt sheriff. Both actors are nicely cast with tongue-in-cheek, but the movie's anachronistic handling is a prolonged in-joke which ultimately leaves the viewer shut off from the humor. The plotting is incidental and slim, and the affection Wilson has for the lead character is translated too coyly. Almost completely inoffensive, it's a picture that barely lingers in the memory. *1/2 from ****