His Stretch Of Texas Ground

His Stretch of Texas Ground promises a wild and fun series of events, but is ultimately halted by poor execution.

Ralph Cinque’s His Stretch of Texas Ground is a follow up to 2019’s My Stretch of Texas Ground. Normally when reviewing a sequel I like to provide myself proper context by at least watching all other films in the series, however after watching the sequel I am pleased that I made the decision not to do that.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

His Stretch of Texas Ground opens with an unassuming man who we later find out to be the sheriff (for those of us who didn’t watch the original) fishing at a small river. We are given our “save the cat” moment when Sheriff Joe Haladin (Jeff Weber) stops a bully from slapping around a few teenagers. He returns home to his family and soon we are introduced to his daily life as the Sheriff of Arlettsville, Texas.

Meanwhile, in San Antonio, a shaggy haired Draven Denison (George Welder), has just recently been released from a 12 year sentence. Denisen is on his way back to Arlettsville seeking his wife Laura (Elisabeth Joy) and son Hunter (Cole Springer). The police department becomes quite concerned with his return, and it is clear that he is sure to cause distress within the community. After a few “tense” encounters with the residents of the town including his ex-wife and the sheriff, Denison is left feeling humiliated. Haladin has threatened to end his employment and housing and a high schooler in a letterman jacket threatened to engage him in fisticuffs.

All is lost for our antagonist until he hatches a plan to manipulate Chase Garrick (Jake Alexander Williams), one of his son’s high school friends, into murdering the high schooler who embarrassed him the parking lot as well as the Sheriff’s daughter, Becky (Haley Raines). Denison then uses the chaos from the Garrick shooting to rob a bank and hold hostages. After an hours-long stalemate, Haladin decides to go inside the building against the orders of the FBI to rescue the hostages and defeat Denison.

Now that we’ve rolled past the premise and plot, we can discuss everything that makes up His Stretch of Texas Ground.

One of the first things I noticed when watching this film was the choice in color grading. There is a constant melancholic cool, deep blue and gray in the image. This is a choice that constantly conflicts with my understanding of the tone of the movie. Instead of being greeted with the feeling of a compassionate, seasoned sheriff who is familiar and well respected by his community and also loved and cherished by his family; I am bombarded with an extreme foreboding and anxiety-inducing landscape. To keep in line with the discussion on tone, I must also mention a constant un-awareness of objectives from most of the cast. At times, thoughtful dialogue and character moments are suffocated by one-note performances that fail to deliver any meaningful rise and fall. Other times characters would legitimately enter delicate scenes on a level 10, and stay there for the duration of said scene. While not every character interaction missed its mark, such as the successful performance from Haladin’s dad, many of them fall short and fail to leave a lasting impression.

Despite the comments made on the performances, I am well aware that all great performances begin with the screenplay. The film commits the cardinal sin of screenwriting: plot-based dialogue. There are several lines that only serve to give us context for the story such as but not limited to: Denison’s history, Haladin’s history, the SAT, Becky’s relationship, police protocol, etc. In addition to this, there are many attempts at witty humor made by the characters that may be just as lost on the non-Texan audience as were the southern slang phrases.

I also find that there were a few staging and blocking issues that removed me from the story. One example was the encounter between Denison and Trevor (Kelby Kuempel), in which Trevor’s motion to a fighting stance was so unbelievably awkward I nearly physically cringed. I also distinctly remember the fight inside the bank between the branch manager (Durrell Lyons) and Bedford & Buelle, Denison’s associates in crime. At one point the branch manager, Ajani, is on top of one of them with the gun and his back facing the other robber. The standing robber just stands there staring at him with his gun drawn. This is likely a mistake of blocking that ended having to be kept in, but it was noticeable and problematic for me as a viewer just the same.

A small sidebar: there were a few unresolved plot threads with that built into nothing. Denison’s master plan of manipulating Garrick into a mass shooting with the scale to divert the entire police force ended in only a single unwarranted killing. The death of Becky’s talented and altruistic boyfriend Jayden (Jovon Holts) was disappointing. Not only did the execution lose me, but the irony of one of only two black speaking characters getting killed was not lost on me. I’m not really sure what the point of the Sheriff election plot was either. But perhaps one of the biggest misses in the movie for me was Hunter. I thought there was so much room to draw parallels between him and his father and give him the chance to atone for the wrongs against his mother. Through Hunter, we would see Haladin operate not only through action but also through subtlety and through words. Haladin would see so much of Denison in Hunter, and while actually doing battle with his Denison, he would be fighting to keep Hunter from going down the same path. It was also be a perfect circle from our opening scene, where Haladin saves the the group of boys. Instead this time instead of serving up a teenage with a one two combo and a sidekick, he would gradually prevent the downfall of a troubled child and save the town from another Denison.

His Stretch of Texas Ground is a familiar story about the family, fighting one’s past, and good ole Texas law and order. While the premise is one most audiences could get behind and understand, many of the more nuance notes in the film are loosely executed or dropped completely. Lacking a strong force to combat our hero, and a verifiable character arc for any of the main cast, His Stretch of Texas Ground fails to strongly deliver on any of its genre’s central themes.