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the latest effort from the actor, producer,director trio that brought us the massively successful "pirate of the caribbean" quadrilogywas released worldwide on july 3, 2013. based on the famous 1930's radio series of the samename, this hugely hyped $250 million dollar adventure epic was unfortunately a commercialdisappointment, with its $260-million international take failing to earn back its marketing andproduction costs. in easily his largest role to date, armie hammer stars as the title character,a recently deputized texas ranger who tracks down vicious criminals to avenge his brother'sdeath... with the help of a curiously eccentric and bizarre native american played by thealways amusing johnny depp, who sternly advises, "there come a time, when good man must wearmask." as an on-screen duo, the winklevoss
twins and captain jack sparrow make an excellentteam... their witty back-and-forth chemistry comprising most of the film's lighter moments.i was struck however at how violent the picture was at times, especially for a disney. onegruesome scene has the nasty and deformed bad guy, played expertly by one of my favoritecharacter actors - william fichter - gutting a man's heart out of his still-breathing body.tom wilkinson, barry pepper, james badge dale, and helena bonham carter round out the talentedsupporting cast - with good, if under featured roles. set in 1869 texas, this pg-13 ratedfilm has all the trappings of a classic western; large set pieces, a grandiose score from hanszimmer, plenty of thrills, one-liners, damsels in distress, dastardly villains, and courageous,uncompromising heroes. at 149-minutes long
however, it's extremely drawn-out and poorlypaced - each individual scene works great; but there's just too many of them. a particulardrain on the run-time is a pointless wrap around plot involving a small child hearingthe entire story in flashback - it never amounts to anything, and could have been done awaywith entirely. ridiculous unrealistic at times, this is escapist hollywood cinema at its finest,which plenty of strong emotional tension, interesting interplay between the characters,and easy to follow action - thanks to director gore verbinski's attention to detail in eventhe most hectic of scenes. when an updated and extended version of the instantly iconicwilliam tell overture swells to full volume during the insanely entertaining climax, it'sabsolutely impossible not to smile and enjoy
the swashbuckling spectacle. logistically,it doesn't always make sense, but this final 15-minute sequence, which sees two separaterunaway trains racing each other on parallel tracks with all the good guys and bad battlingit out for justice and their lives - is positively incredible, seriously one of the most inventive,well-choreographed, and entertaining scenes in recent movie history - even throwing ina nod to "back to the future iii" for good measure. with sharp and beautiful visualsof monument valley, slick and effective editing, and immersive sound effects - this pictureis fantastically accomplished on a technical level. although awfully slow to get going,when it finally does - this is a wonderful experience i'll definitely watch again. "thelone ranger", "enthralling extravaganza overcomes
boring beginning." here's what you had tosay about the film in the youtube comments. now, our scores for "the lone ranger"... asix and an eight. while everyone criticized the lengthy runtime, and some poor plot elements,you enjoyed the action and western elements, ranking the movie good. perhaps going intothe film with low-expectations helped, but despite its lackluster second act... the rapturousfinale more than saved this picture, especially when you have that awesome music - i thoughtthe movie was great.
