I love looking at Sam Elliott regardless because he is a very hot sexy looking man, Tom Selleck on the other hand never did it for me because of his sheepish grins which were a turn off. This is a western not an episode of Magnum PI Mr Selleck. The movie suffers from a really bad score ,cliches and the 80's A team kind of feel where the bad guys get knocked out in one punch, the bad guys always miss when shooting at the good guys and the good guys who always hit their targets in one shot even on horseback and of course never get hurt or show any signs of bruises even when being thrown on the ground or blown up. In one scene Selleck is riding a horse alongside a train and a stick of dynamite blows up right under his horse and he gets right back up to not only grab the underside of the train car but climbs up the side of the train no worse for wear. The music is this typical disneyesque western schlock no doubt to make it more family friendly. In my opinion, it makes you just want to change the channel. It's also hard to not groan when Katherine Ross is on screen with her real life hubby Sam ELliott, She plays his girlfriend or fiancée I think which also makes it less believable since they give each other these smarmy looks as if to say "after we shoot this scene lets go get drunk and do the nasty".I think Selleck and Elliott are just eye candy for this movie to no doubt let gay guys and straight women have their fantasies. The rest of the cast including old time western stars ben johnson and harry carey jr are simply along for the usual ride of chewing up the scenery. Its too bad they couldn't have made it more gritty and left out the sap. Lamour wrote some good westerns but unfortunately added romantic aspects to them that IMO don't belong. Frontier romance is portrayed so badly in movies with sap thats why i hate it. Good thing they don't make western like this crap anymore. They need to be gritty like unforgiven or josey wales. You can have women but you cant make it sappy. 3/10

The Shadow Riders is directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and adapted to screenplay by Jim Byrnes from the novel written by Louis L'Amour. It stars Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross, Dominique Dunne, Ben Johnson and Geoffrey Lewis. Music is by Jerrold Immel and cinematography by Jack Whitman.A CBS TV production, The Shadow Riders has Selleck (Mac Traven) and Elliott (Dal Traven) as brothers, who even though they fought on different sides in the Civil War, there fondness for each other still exists. With the war now officially ended, the brothers meet up and head for the family home, here they find their parents telling of how their sisters and Dal's girlfriend Kate (Ross) have been abducted by Renegade Rebels. The men promptly set off in search of their loved ones...It's all very much standard stuff, both in plot telling and production values. Exuding very much a family feel, it's a disappointingly bloodless and sexless picture, with some cliché'd dialogue, poor musical accompaniments to certain scenes (tonally way off) and filler sequences thrown in for good measure. That said, it's very much a harmless piece, with the two male leads good company to share some time with, while Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. offer up a welcoming presence. Location scenery is also well photographed, keeping things airy, and ultimately it's a decent enough time waster for Western fans not expecting an under seen gem. 6/10

I love Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot. Together in the same just makes it better for me. Playing two brothers home from the just ended Civil War, where they fought on opposite sides, they find that their women folk have been stolen by what turns out to be Rebels who are running for Mexico to keep on fighting. The bad guys plan on trading them to some gunrunners for surprise, surprise, guns. Katherine Ross plays the brave, undaunted, heroine type. She shows great spirit and fortitude. Ben Johnson appears as the brothers long gone Uncle Black Jack, a character of dubious reputation. He turns out to be just what the brothers need. Every thing turns out well and the good guys win and the bad guys lose. Typical for a L'Amour novel.

Being a huge fan of Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot in westerns, I have to say that I was underwhelmed with the show. I actually bought the DVD just because it had Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot AND was a Louis L'Amour story. I had not heard of it but figured I couldn't go wrong. While the combination of Selleck, Elliot and L'Amour should have been golden, they turned out to be brass. The production value was very "television" (it was made for TV). It is what it is in that regard. However the action sequences were (IMHO) amateur. The hero knocks out the bad guy with one punch. The bad guys never see the hero's sneaking through the bushes in broad daylight. It just had a typical 80's TV show feel to it. I still felt it was worth the purchase for Selleck and Elliot even if the story and production didn't support them very well.