The trouble with this spoof Western is that it's too improbable to be enjoyable.

And, despite some amusing moments along the trail, it can't even come up with a decent finishing line after more than two hours.

Basing its concept on the old TV series, the film has Mel Gibson in the title role: he's just faintly annoying as the beaming, master-bluffing gambler trying to get to a big riverboat game, at which the pot is half a million.

Aiming for the same table are Annabelle (Jodie Foster), a lady gambler and all-round sneak-thief, the bad guy Angel (Alfred Molina) and upright marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner).

Garner was, of course, the original Maverick on TV, and even gets to use his trademark phrase 'A man could get killed doing that'.

There are comic villains and comic Indians, and Mel's Lethal Weapon partner Danny Glover is in it too, the pair making with the double-takes when Danny's robber is unmasked by Mel.

Most of the witty and amusing bits are in the trailer: there aren't that many.