Two 8-year-old twin girls named Susie and Jessica Martin live with their widowed father, Stephen. They want to go to this dude ranch out west since their latest mom’s godmother, Natty, invited them. The place is even struggling to stay in business.

However, Stephen cannot get vacation from work. So, the girls call his office and request it. The boss gives him time off—but then fires him.

The twins play the message for their dad but stop at the part where he’s fired. Stephen is happy and plans a trip to that dude ranch.

When they arrive, they meet this nice woman, Laura, who is riding a horse named Lightning. They also meet Natty, an indigenous guy called George Tailfeathers, and Natty’s 35-year-old son, Bart.

George shows the girls to their room. They can’t help but feel suspicious of Bart.

Later, Lightning leads the twins to an area that had things their mother owned, including a diary. They read some entries.

But they see smoke at the ranch and worry that it’s on fire. Yet it turns out that Bart is burning notes he’d written to past guests cancelling their stays at this ranch. Susie and Jessica turn on him. Not only that, but he also reveals that he wants to turn the ranch into an amusement park.

Sometime later, Susie and Jessica talk to each other. They reveal that their dad got fired, which Bart finds out.

When everyone is in the same room together, Bart forces the girls to confess to their dad about him getting fired. Not only is he disappointed in them, but he worries about how he can get more money.

Stephen tries to get a loan from the bank—except that it’s rejected. Susie and Jessica begin to worry, too.

At some point, the twins ride Lightning the horse into town and go to meet the businessman, Leo McRugger. Bart plans to sell the ranch to him as a new theme park.

Jessica and Susie do a lot to speak to Mr. McRugger. Although it takes a while, they eventually do. They suggest that he and his colleagues experience the ranch. Then they ride back.

Shortly after, Mr. McRugger and his team come. They ride horses, raft down the river, and do other activities. Unfortunately, each one ends badly. That is because Bart is secretly sabotaging their experiences.

Mr. McRugger and his staff are unable to trust anyone at the ranch. Then they leave.

What will happen next?

Despite the premise sounding exciting, I will admit that this movie did not engage me as much as I hoped. The scenes lagged at times, and the pacing was sometimes slow.

It was also hard to tell Susie and Jessica apart. I know they were supposed to be together at all times. But their names weren’t used that often, either. Not only that, but they also had little in terms of uniqueness.

That being said, this film did have a lot of strengths, too. Aside from being heavily inspiring (I now want to go to a dude ranch in the west because of this movie), it was also adventurous. I enjoyed watching the characters do different activities, such as horseback riding. Susie and Jessica even took lessons, which was something I can relate to. Fun fact: I took riding lessons in my youth, too.

Which brings me to my next thought: I found it amusing and creative for Jessica and Susie to ride a horse into town. I also found it interesting how Lightning the horse didn’t get uncomfortable or scared around the cars.

Stephen disliked how they rode the horse into town unsupervised. But he didn’t really get angry. However, if this happened in real life, not only would Stephen have been furious with his daughters, but he also would’ve gotten in trouble with social services. Yet this is a movie, and they can get away with unrealistic events like that.

I loathed Bart a lot. I could easily tell that he was going to be the story’s antagonist. He did a lot of bad things to the point where even Natty eventually kicked him out of the ranch.

Stephen also formed a relationship with Laura. Of course, since it’s not possible to truly replace a deceased parent, Susie and Jessica were resistant to Laura at first. But then they learned to accept her.

Twists and turns do occur, as well. See the movie to find out what they are.

Overall, I thought How the West Was Fun was decent. Even though there were more strengths than weaknesses, the difference wasn’t that big.

I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.