Dead for a Dollar (2022) review

Hired gun Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) is paid a solid wage to locate Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) - who has supposedly been abducted by Buffalo soldier Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott) - and Sgt. Poe (Warren Burke) accompanies him ... but they find themselves against Mexican warlord Vargas (Benjamin Bratt) as well as horse thief/bank robber/card cheat Joe Cribbens (Willem Dafoe), who's fresh out of prison.  It's always nice to see filmmakers going back to the Western genre - which is one of the United States' greatest contributions to the medium - but I prefer it when they aren't thoroughly mediocre in virtually every aspect (with the exception of the performances): intentionally washing out the visuals (to make it look like a TV movie?) wasn't the smartest choice, the dialogue is bland (Waltz must miss mouthing out Quentin's diatribes) and there are grievous pacing issues - even the inevitable showdown between Borlund and Cribbens is over pretty quickly.  I'm glad Hill's still making pictures in his 80's, but did he forget how to do plot exposition along the way?