![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/m/maverick.jpg)
Maverick
Mel Gibson and director Richard Donner proved that they were on to something when they teamed up for Lethal Weapon, but by the time 1994's Maverick arrived, it seemed they had lost it. Gibson stars as Bret Maverick, an ace card-player who must find his way from the far West to St. Louis, where he intends to join a million-dollar poker tournament. On his journey, he is joined by a con-artist (Jodie Foster) and a retired lawman (James Garner), who find themselves subject to the numerous pitfalls that await cross-country travelers. Unfortunately, the attractive mix of action, suspense, and humor that Gibson and Donner mined so well in their previous collaborations has been forgotten here, and all that is left is Gibson and crew bickering at each other for a couple of hours. The final scenes of the film contain a few payoffs, but it takes a fatiguing amount of time to get there. An unbilled appearance by Danny Glover as a bank robber (complete with echoes of the Lethal Weapon theme music) contributes to the overall impression that Gibson and Donner didn't make Maverick to entertain movie fans, but merely to entertain themselves. Also starring James Coburn and Graham Greene. Good transfer, DD 5.1, trailer, textual supplements.
—JJB
