It’s time for one of those classic Western films. This one has its share of ups and downs. On one hand, the romance is pretty bad and the main character looks surprisingly weak at times but on the other hand it is an interesting story as it goes through. The ending is a bit sad for many of the characters but the lead isn’t exactly a full on hero this time around so he doesn’t exactly stop to worry about it. I don’t see this one hanging in there with the best in the genre but it’s good enough.

The movie starts with Hogan saving a nun from a bunch of attackers. She pleads for his help and Hogan is reluctant at first but she begins to prove herself useful in knowing about a nearby base. See Hogan needs to help blow up a French base due to a deal he made with the Mexicans and then after that he will be given a lot of gold. Hogan is ready to be rich and so he quickly prepares for this. What he doesn’t realize is that his side is way less prepared than they led him to believe.

Now a lot of the humor in the film is based around how Sara doesn’t always act like a Nun. She can be rather crass at times and just doesn’t have the right temperament. I’d say the audience knows something is up almost immediately but surprisingly Hogan doesn’t really put the pieces together. In hindsight it doesn’t make Sara look all that good though. If anything it makes her appear extra naive at times and you really wonder what kind of a plan she even had. If not for Hogan stopping by early on then she would have really been doomed right from the start of her journey. She also takes her duties rather far to the extent of wasting water and doing a lot of extra work when time is short.

The scenes are more questionable by the end of the film but you can make some arguments for them so I suppose that’s what counts. I never ended up becoming a fan of her character though. One crazy scene in particular happens in the climax while everyone is dying she is relaxing in the tub. Of course Hogan isn’t any better so the same thing applies to him. The guy makes plain that he’s not a hero on several occasions and is always coming close to a shootout. I give the Mexican commander props for standing up to him the whole time. It’s rare to see anyone with that level of confidence against the main hero.

In that debate Hogan was technically correct in that he sacrificed too much to be cut out at that point. He’s a very good shooter as always but perhaps isn’t quite as overly confident as you’re used to the actor being in other films. There is also a scene where Hogan is completely taken by surprise and shot by a nearby Indian arrow. That scene was probably the best in the film because of how sudden it was. Usually the arrows hit a side character or something but no, this time it was a full surprise blow that completely worked. Most impressive!

Of course it does lead to the weakest scene which is when the arrow has to be pulled out. The whole scene is dragged on way too much. It just goes and goes and you feel like we got the point early on. The film could have proceeded from there. So the movie has an issue with fanservice, bad romance, and the pulling out the arrow scene was overdone. At least in terms of animals only a snake gets chopped. Still rough but it could have been worse if it was a dog or a horse.

There isn’t a ton of action here until the end though. For the most part it’s all about the adventure. There are several close shaves but each time the fight ends up getting defused first. We had a scene where Hogan was setting up guns at different windows and I thought he was going to pull a bluff about a lot of soldiers being around or actually using them all. Instead the other army just keeps on going which felt like a bit of a waste to me. I thought that would have been real interesting to see how the fight would play out. I suppose its effective as a misdirect but it would have been a good opportunity to throw in some quality action.

The climax delivers on all the gun action but since both sides are bunches of nameless grunts, you’re not quite as invested. Hogan gets a quick shootout inside of the room but I would have liked it if he could have gotten more to do after that. In theory he’s the best asset that the army has so lets see him get a little more action to do. A few key shots to take care of villains, maybe show him saving some of the soldiers, etc. Even if he’s not going to be the ultimate hero, it helps to serve his own purposes which is enough justification in itself.

I will say that the twist for Sara is good in the sense that it takes away from the corruption message. Otherwise it felt like throughout the whole movie Hogan was trying to get to her and introducing a bunch of doubts in every direction. That would have definitely been annoying if the romance had just happened anyway. So this way you remove that part even if it doesn’t exactly help her as a character. So the film basically had to pick its poison among two dicey options.

Overall, Two Mules for Sara is a good film if you really love westerns but only okay otherwise. It feels like Sara heavily overplays her hand to the point where you feel like the film is really trying to steer you away from the plot twist even though there were several hints for it early on. The film is really built around the banter between the two main characters but since the romance isn’t particularly good, this doesn’t end up working as effectively as it should have. The climax delivers on the action by the end but it takes a while to get there. It is an interesting and engaging film so as long as you can look past the weak points, you should be fine.

Overall 5/10