Maverick (1994)

Mel Gibson is Bret Maverick, a gambler headed to the first ever All Rivers Draw Poker Championship in St. Louis with a cool $500,000 purse at stake.

He has just two problems. First, a Mexican named Angel is on his trail and seems to have it out for him, for a reason Maverick doesn’t understand.

Second, he’s $3,000 short of the $25,000 fee to enter that all-star poker match, and his friends aren’t being all that cooperative in coughing up money they owe him.

He encounters problem number three in Crystal River, where he hopes to find a poker game where he can close that $3,000 gap.

He finds a game alright, and one of the players is pretty Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), with a phony Mrs. in front of her name, a phony southern accent and sticky fingers when it comes to men with fat wallets.

Maverick manages to retrieve his wallet from her three times before they board the same stage, along with legendary lawman Zane Cooper (James Garner).

He’s been hired to provide security for the all-star poker match, which is being held aboard a riverboat owned by Commodore Duvall (James Corburn).

Maverick winds up getting his $25,000 stake. He winds up helping stake Annabelle to a spot in the poker match too, though he has to blackmail an archbuke to do it.

And he makes it all the way to the finals, along with Annabelle, the Commodore and Angel.

But even when the card game ends, there are more twists to come involving that $500,000 prize.

Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick, pretending not to know what he’s doing at the poker table in Maverick (1994)

Jodie Foster as Annabelle Bransford, inviting Bret Maverick to join her poker game in Maverick (1994)

Review:

A delightful remake of the Maverick story, with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster turning in charming performances in the lead roles and Garner, the original Maverick, slipping effortlessly into the role of Marshal Cooper.

Along the way, Maverick saves the trio in a runaway stage, tracks down $30,000 in stolen wagon train money from a band of cutthroats and wins at least a tiny piece of Annabelle’s mercenary heart.

And in one of the film’s better segments, he teams up with Chief Joseph (Graham Greene) to earn some of the entry money he’ll need from the aforementioned Archduke of Russia.

The chief offers the archduke a chance to experience the biggest Western thrill of them all: killing an Indian.

Then Maverick pretends to be the dying Indian as the archduke tries to chase him down, first with a defective bow and arrow, then with a much more dangerous long-range rifle.

Even the done-to-death poker scenes seem to have a bit more zest with Gibson and Foster around to spice things up.

James Garner as Marshal Zane Cooper, making sure the all-star poker match is fair in Maverick (1994)

Alfred Molina as Angel, the man tasked with keeping Maverick from reaching an all-star poker match in Maverick (1994)

Directed by:
Richard Donner

Cast:
Mel Gibson … Bret Maverick
Jodie Foster .. Annabelle Bransford
James Garner … Marshal Zane Cooper
Graham Greene … Joseph
Alfred Molina … Angel
James Coburn … Commodore Duvall
Dub Taylor … Room clerk
Geoffrey Lewis … Matthew Wicker / Eugene the banker
Paul L. Smith … The Archduke
Dan Hedaya … Twitchy
Dennis Fimple … Stuttering

Also with: Denver Pyle, Clint Black, Max Perlich, Art LaFleur, Leo Gordon, Paul Tuerpe, Jean De Baer, Paul Brinegar, Hal Ketchum, Corey Feldman, John M. Woodward, Jese Eric Carroll, Toshinnie Touchin, John Meier, Steven Chambers, Doc Duhame, Frank Orsatti, Lauren Shuler Donner, Courtney Barilla, Kimberly Cullum, Gary Richard Frank, Read Morgan, Steve Kahan, Stephen Liska, Robert Jones, Waylon Jennings, Carlene Carter, Robert Fuller, Doug McClure

Runtime: 127 min.

James Coburn as Commodore Duvall, host of the all-star poker tournament in Maverick (1994)

Graham Greene as Chief Joseph, scaring everyone but Maverick with his vicious Indian act in Maverick (1994)

Memorable lines:

Bret Maverick, aboard his horse with a noose around his neck: “Lord, whatever I’ve done to piss you off, if you just get me out of this and somehow let me know what it was, I promise I’ll rectify the situation.”

Bully in a saloon: “You always been gutless?”
Bret Maverick: “Yeah, I think so. Well, for as long as I can remember anyway. My old pappy used to say, he who fights and runs away can run away another day.”

Bret Maverick: “I don’t want to go to bed with you, lady?”
Annabelle: “Why not?”
Maverick: “Why not? Why not? I’d be too frightened. If I dozed off, god knows what parts of me you’d steal. I’d wake up with all sorts of things missing.”

Bret Maverick: “Blowing my head off isn’t going to make you any richer.”
Henchman: “But it’s gonna make me feel better.”

Annabelle, after losing a hand of poker: “I’ll just pretend I was playing with someone else’s money.”
Bret Maverick: “That shouldn’t be too hard.”

Commodore Duval: “Cooper, your security isn’t worth a damn. Everyone’s got a gun.”

Marshal Zane Cooper: “I don’t like secrets.”

Max Perlich as John Wesley Hardin, playing poker with Bret Maverick in Maverick (1994)

Danny Glover in a cameo as a bank robber in Maverick (1994)

Geoffrey Lewis as Eugene, the banker who has no money to pay back Maverick, until a bandit with a gun prompts him to produce a fat walle tin Maverick (1994)

James Garner as Marshal Zane Cooper, wondering just how concerned he should be about those Indians on the horizon in Maverick (1994)

Jodie Foster as Annabelle Bransford, fretting as Bret Maverick prepares to leave with the Indians in Maverick (1994)

Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick, pretending to sacrifice himself to the Indians for the greater good in Maverick (1994)