Plot: In 1874 Texas, two friends and an Indian scout rescue kidnapped women from sadistic traffickers near the Mexican border.
Alexander Nevsky returns in Taken from Rio Bravo, the follow up to Gunfight at Rio Bravo which came out in 2023.
He’s joined by an all-star cast including Jor Cornet (who also directs), Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Matthias Hues, Art Camacho and James Chalke in a scene stealing turn as one of the main villains, Jack Watuku. Matthias Hues returns as Crawley, but I do wish he had a bigger part and got in a few more fight scenes. It’s too bad Olivier Gruner didn’t return in some capacity, but Don Wilson is always a welcome addition to any cast.
Cynthia is more of a cameo only in one scene where she gets into a brief fight; we should see more of her in action in the upcoming Back Creek and Lady Scorpions.
The story for Taken from Rio Bravo follows on from the events of Gunfight with human traffickers foolishly kidnapping female friends of Ivan (Nevsky) and Kelly (Cornet). It doesn’t take long for our two heroes to be in hot pursuit as they try to catch the villains.
This is low budget, so don’t expect any huge set-pieces but it still has some shoot-outs and brief fights. I do wish we got some more hand to hand fight scenes, but maybe we’ll get more of that in the third entry in this franchise which is coming soon.
We (The Action Elite) are actually thanked in the end credits of the movie which is a first and really quite awesome.
Like I said above, James Chalke is a real piece of work in this and truly hateful with no redeeming qualities.
I love how Ivan is based on a real person and many of the events that take place actually happened and he sounded like an impressive individual.
Sean Murray provides the score and it’s a throwback to classic Westerns and he never disappoints even if it’s a low budget film.
One thing about both of these movies is that everyone looks like they are having a fun time; you can almost tell that it’s a group of friends doing what they love and that jumps off the screen. Nevsky is well cast as the monosyllabic but heroic Ivan who will do anything for his friends.
Overall, Taken from Rio Bravo is a fun indie Western movie with a cast of legends. It has enough action to keep things moving and the brief runtime makes this an easy watch.