Durango Kids (1999)

Also Known As (AKA)

Durango Kids - Aventura no Velho Oeste - Brazil (TV title)

Future Kids - Jäger des verlorenen Goldes – Germany

Durango Kids won the 2002 Seahorse Award on the Moondance International Film Festival

Austin Nichols plays Sammy

I haven’t seen this movie (yet). I tried to order it but it was no longer available.



Plot summary

Four kids slip through a hole in time when they discover a hidden mine shaft that transports them to the old Wild West. Their magical journey takes them to a place where they encounter thieving bandits, pandemonium and adventure in their pursuit of lost gold. What the youngsters don't know is that their Principal is trying to capture the lost treasure first. Now the gang has to stick together to find the hidden gold before their evil Principal locates the loot for himself! Adventure has a new Posse!

Review by James Reasoner (2007)

Another library movie, this one a low-budget, family-friendly adventure film about a group of modern-day kids who accidentally travel back in time (don’t you just hate it when that happens?) to the Old West and try to prevent a gang of outlaws from stealing a fortune in gold. Most of the cast members are unknowns, and the acting is pretty bad throughout. But the scenery is really nice. The movie was filmed around Durango, Colorado, and some of it involves the tourist train that runs between Durango and the old mining town of Silverton. We rode that train once when I was a kid, on one of our vacation trips, and it was fun seeing it again.

It’s also interesting to watch how some of the Old West scenes show a Sergio Leone influence. I think the look and feel and staging of the Italian Westerns are so ingrained in pop culture by now that sometimes filmmakers imitate them without even being consciously aware of what they’re doing. I’m also curious about the title of this movie. Wasn’t the Durango Kid the name of the character played by Charles Starrett in most of his B-Westerns? How many kids today are going to be aware of that? A handful, if that? Why give your movie a title with a connotation that 99.9% of your intended audience doesn’t understand?

DURANGO KIDS is just entertaining and interesting enough to be worth a look, especially if you find it at the library, like we did, and don’t have to pay anything for it.



Another review (a good one for Austin!)

This movie would have been bearable otherwise, but the kids' acting is reminiscent of a hastily produced school play, especially the fat black kid, who seems to be enjoying the camera rather than being in his character. (By the way, he got entirely too much screen time).

Austin Nichols (Sammy) was believable and sincere and did a lot to salvage this feeble attempt at entertainment. What's so cool about assaulting innocent adults on a tourist train. Is that adventure? The forced tears in the jail scene was almost unbearable. Might entertain your small children, but wouldn't recommend it otherwise. Glad I got it free as a pizza premium and didn't waste money on it. Blurb on the DVD jacket seems to compare this movie with HOLES and SPY KIDS........I don't think so.