I will be honest: after 1923, I wanted Brandon Sklenar to get a film built around the thing he does best. The Rescue looks like exactly that.
This is an action-thriller from Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Media Group, Domain Entertainment and Hideout Productions. Potsy Ponciroli directs from a script by John Fusco, and the film opens in cinemas on January 29, 2027. Sklenar plays a former rodeo cowboy whose daughter is kidnapped for ransom. Rather than wait for the law, he sets out with her devoted dog to bring her home, and the first trailer makes it plain he is not interested in negotiating. It is not a Taylor Sheridan project, though it shares DNA with the kind of frontier revenge he has made fashionable.
The cast around Sklenar is a big reason this feels more substantial than a quick genre job: Josh Lucas, Hassie Harrison, Lorelei Olivia Mote, Nick Searcy, Austin Amelio, Spencer Treat Clark, Tim Blake Nelson and Josh Duhamel. That is a lot of people who can make a scene feel lived-in, and the trailer uses them to suggest a world beyond one man’s rampage.
What the trailer promises
It promises a hard-charging, dust-in-the-teeth revenge picture with a clear emotional centre. The setup is familiar — a parent will tear through anyone to save a child — but the rodeo-cowboy angle gives it a texture that a generic special-forces dad story would not have. The dog is not just a cute detail; the trailer treats it as a partner, which tells me the film wants the audience to feel the relationship, not just the body count.
What it holds back
For all the gunfire and galloping, the trailer is surprisingly disciplined about the people behind the kidnapping. There is mention of a crime syndicate, but the mechanics are kept vague, and there are enough odd glances and loaded silences to suggest the film has at least one turn it does not want spoiled. That restraint makes me more interested, not less.
The moment everyone will talk about
The line that will stick is the warning the whole film seems built around: never mess with a cowboy’s daughter. It is simple, a little pulpy, and in Sklenar’s hands it lands because he can sell righteous fury without winking at it.
Where this sits for Sklenar
This is the kind of lead role that could turn a very good TV presence into a big-screen action draw. He has already done the frontier work in 1923, and with a Taylor Sheridan project, F.A.S.T., lined up next, The Rescue feels like a bridge into bigger, grittier leading roles.
The honest verdict
On the evidence of the trailer, The Rescue looks worth a cinema ticket if you like this kind of bruising, emotional action. It is not pretending to be high art, but it looks committed, well-cast and smart enough to keep its secrets. I am going in expecting a hard ride and hoping the film is tougher and twistier than the usual kidnapped-daughter thriller.
Watch the original: Paramount Pictures on YouTube
Source: JoBlo Media Inc
