DESERT DAWN
(director: Marty Murray; screenwriters: Chad Lewis, Johnny Walters, Art Comacho; cinematographer: Brandon Ruiz; editor: Rylan Rafferty; music: Mauricio Yazigi; cast: Kellan Lutz (Luke Easton), Cam Gigandet (Deputy John Sites), Chas Michael Collins (Jack Danes), Texas Battle (Deputy Sal Read), Helene Haro (Cheyenne Gomez), Mike Ferguson (Ezra Craft), Chris Maher (Deadman, Byron Cressman); Runtime: 89; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Elias Axume, Al Bravo, HemDee Kiwanuka; VOD/Saban Films; 2025)
“A routine thriller.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A low-budget, routine thriller, directed by Marty Murray (“Paranormal Island”) and weakly written by Chad Lewis, Johnny Walters, and Art Comacho. This is a direct-to-home video.
The recovering alcoholic Luke Easton (Kellan Lutz) returns to his small hometown in New Mexico as the newly appointed sheriff, after years away in LA due to the death of his parents. His passed-over for the job old friend is the deputy, John Sites (Cam Gigandet), who is bitter about the rejection but works with Luke to try to solve who killed a mysterious woman. The lawmen learn of her murder after discovering in a SUV the body of a suicide victim named Cressman, who has beside him a sack of stolen money from a drug cartel and a cell phone with a photo of the mysterious dead woman on it. The lawmen establish the money was stolen from a drug dealer and was meant to pay off a greedy sleazebag named Jack Danes (Chas Michael Collins).
The murder trail leads them to shady businessmen and the drug cartel that’s led by the ruthless Fernando Carrillo (Guillermo Iván). The closer they come to solving the murder, the more dangerous things become for them.
Some romantic intrigue is thrown into the mix, as the sheriff’s former girlfriend Cheyenne Gomez (Helena Haro) has become the town doctor who treats his gunshot wound in the arm.
There’s nothing terrible or great about the fistfights and gun battles. But the climax is a bitter disappointment, as it turns on a character suddenly flashing his bad side without any prior warning to reveal him as being a bad guy. This is lazy screenwriting, as the procedural crime story ends with a whimper.
REVIEWED ON 5/21/2025 GRADE: C
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