Maverick

A hugely entertaining and smart Wild West comedy with a surprising ending. Small-time grifter Gibson is a likeable guy, the Indians are very easy-going and phlegmatic and Jodie Foster has never looked better. The production design led by the period steamboat is flawless. And that little cameo by Danny Glover, a subtle wink to the Lethal Weapon series, is just charming. I’ll always love this movie. (20/04/2003)

Maverick was our childhood VHS classic, and it amuses me terribly whenever I see my brother unable to shake off the role model the protagonist was to him. But try getting the money he owes you out of him sometime. Yet the film terribly fulfills that requirement of a non-committal two hours pieced together from simple, funny episodes that are also handled like poker also with the individual players. Everybody is aware of the rules and the penalties for breaking them, but still they just give it a try once in a while, once it works, twice it doesn't, and if it doesn't work, well, the penalty has to be endured. After all, even the money here is almost a kind of McGuffin that none of the local solitaires really need, but it functions as a driver of the plot and motivation for the characters to take action. After all, when the film ends in the spa, where the characters are happily smoking a cigar even after having a quarter of a million dollars stolen from them, they rejoice at the thought of how much fun it will be to get that money back again. I only knocked off a star years later for the terribly scenic nighttime exteriors. (04/02/2021)

When I compare Mel Gibson of the present day with the past Mel Gibson, for example in 1994, I’m shocked at the amount of confidence that he was able to put into his acting. Maverick is the shining example. Mel does whatever he wants, even to Jodie Foster, the poker players, and especially to the viewers. He’s frowning at times and then he’s laughing unexpectedly. And the viewers are frowning or laughing along with him. Sometimes, he stops breathing from all that suspense and the viewers do the same. He can simply put so much emotion into his performance. It’s not the same nowadays, but I get him. However, I hope that he gets back into it one day. I really want that for him. He’s an amazing actor. I mean, every single movie he’s appeared in is great. All his characters are memorable in some field or another. Like Maverick is when it comes to poker. He put on such a brutal poker face that he could win the first spot in the international emotionless expression contest. Great. I enjoyed it. It reminded me of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill a bit… just the American way. (02/11/2012)

The only film where the action-comedy pace of Richard Donner didn't work for me at all. There’s actually very little action and it's not really a groundbreaking story, and there isn't exactly a huge amount of humor either. The only truly brilliant scene is the reference to Lethal Weapon  in the middle of the bank robbery. Jodie Foster is quite unremarkable and the only thing worth mentioning is the likeable Mel Gibson. The middle segment with the Indians is quite boring and the final scenes of who is playing who for the tenth time are quite embarrassing. I don't understand why there is so much praise, I really didn't find anything monumental. Donner has made many better things, more entertaining, more action-packed, and better put together. (28/11/2006)

A brilliant passage with Indians, some great jokes and Danny Glover exchanging glances with Mel Gibson and his "I'm too old for this shit!" brought me to my knees. However, this does not overcome the fact that Maverick is too much of an excessive spectacle, that it’s not smooth in many scenes, that it is predictable and that Annabelle is by far the biggest and most insidious bitch in Jodie Foster’s career, who is otherwise lovely and charming. (26/07/2011)