The Lone Ranger Review
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The Lone Ranger
Disney Bruckheimer
PG 13 149 min
So the first thing to be noticed is that the film starts out in the 1930s with a little kid in a Lone Ranger outfit strolling through the Wild West exhibit at a carnival. He comes upon a statue of the Native American apparently in his natural habitat. As it turns out this noble savage is a living breathing man, just very very old. It turns out that he is the legendary Tonto and he proceeds to tell the young fellow the story of how he and his famous partner started out. I couldn't help but notice the obvious rip from Dustin Hoffman's LITTLE BIG MAN but... The story itself turns out to be and adventure comedy told in flashback with plenty of action, actually more than plenty of action and just enough plot to satisfactorily fill a 90 minute film. Unfortunately here when we hit the 90 minute mark there's still an hour left to go. A particularly evil (and cannibalistic) bad guy namely Burch Cavendish is being transferred via locomotive for sentencing. A whole bunch of other bad guys show up to wreck the train and rescue the SOB. A posse of Texas Rangers sets out to capture these desperados but are ambushed and killed.
Along with one of the rangers is the clean cut brother, a bookish legal type of lawman who is actually left for dead. Tonto comes across the carnage and rescues the survivor thanks to the aid of a white spirit horse soon to be named, well, you know.
Since the bad guys think all the rangers are dead he figures it's a good idea for the remaining brother to wear a mask. At this point the film moves through periods of dull introspection and loud frenetic action. The good guys and bad guys are separated along politically correct lines, the bad guys are the US Army and the railroad corporate executives and the twisted desperados in their employ.
As I said this film reminds me a bit of a line from a folk song one split pea in a 10 pound tub. It's really not a bad story but it's awfully watered down. That seems to be a trademark of gore Verbinski who is apparently Johnny Depp's go to director. In a way given the pacing and the tone THE LONE RANGER reminded me a bit of the second PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN but with no great performance.
Still I did not dislike this film by any means even if it dragged noticeably in spots. And honestly at the final scene when they cue the music its hard not to want to cheer. Not quite a comedy or a thriller; and all in all it falls well short of expectations, hence the beating it took at the box office.
Might still be the curse of Clayton Moore.
C+
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