Outlaws

I watched this pilot movie the night it aired. Since it sandwiched between For Your Eyes Only and The Sound of Music ... not many other people did.

The pilot itself is very compelling. After five old west gun slingers are mysteriously transported from 1899 to 1986 by a stroke of lightning, a sequence of scenes showing their shock at the modern world and stumbling attempts to interact with it are very effective ... both in the imaginative scripting of the scenes and the acting.

Luckily for the men, the four outlaws have just made off with a thousand Double Eagle coins ... worth $500 each in 1986 Houston. So they're not going to starve soon. In fact, they split the sale of the coins and use part of the money to buy a ranch.

Some well-done tension causes the group to split, and the three who leave the ranch predictably get into trouble, and that trouble involves a violent and possibly psycho gang leader. Eventually, all five decide they must pursue him, since the cops are having no luck.

Okay, so a lot of the story after that doesn't make a lot of sense, including the final action, but it's fun. We enjoyed it. :-)