The
Lone Ranger: ***/*****, or 6/10
Big
budget remake of the classic radio play and television series
appropriates the success formula formerly applied to the Pirates
of the Caribbean films, which is not surprising considering the
same people and studio that made those swashbucklers are behind this
project. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Disney and directed by
Gore Verbinski, The Lone Ranger once again makes ample use of
Johnny Depp's uncanny talent for playing weird, seemingly mentally
unbalanced outcasts, considered a main audience draw for which Depp
as usual received top billing, even though he does not play the
titular character (in that regard it's Alice in Wonderland all
over again). This time Depp assumes the mantle of the Lone Ranger's
iconic Indian sidekick, Tonto, who recalls his adventures with the
movie's actual hero at extreme old age, stuck in a sideshow tour as a
noble savage. This framing of a tale within a tale is rather annoying
as the movie tends to swivel from one version of Tonto to the other
at moments where such distraction is not at all warranted and takes
the pace out of the piece. Armie Hammer (The Social Network)
plays John Reid, an overly morally righteous lawyer who must cope
with the fact that the rules of law simply don't apply in the Wild
West, especially when those in power make their own law. As a result,
his valiant brother is killed and he himself is left for dead, until
Tonto “resurrects” him and helps him get in shape as a masked
Ranger who fights for justice and protects the weak from those who
would corrupt the law for their own nefarious purposes. Enter an
unscrupulous railroad tycoon and his sinister henchman with a taste
for excessive violence (the ever eerie William Fichtner), who mean to
instigate a war with the Indians in order to move in on their
territory that contains huge silver deposits. Reid and Tonto, who is
also an outcast amongst his own tribe for being a supposed nutcase,
must find a way to expose the plot as well as save Reid's sweet
sister-in-law and her young son.
This
results in the usual action driven plot, moving from setpiece to
setpiece through all the old Western locales, including a whorehouse
run by Helena Bonham Carter (equipped with an ivory faux leg of large
calibre), Native American teepee villages and the indispensable
classic Fordian landscapes of canyons and unusual rock formations no
Western ought to do without. Except from the climactic train chase,
which admittedly is one of the finest and funniest ever put on film,
most action scenes cannot escape a sense of staleness. Depp does his
usual thing on autopilot, playing Tonto as a psychologically
ambiguous character that gets into trouble regularly but always
manages to pull himself out, more with luck than through his wits as
he stumbles into one Keaton-esque gag after the other, while the
naive but handsome Reid follows the predictable path from idealistic
city boy to genuine Western hero. As was the case with the Pirates
movies, there is a distinct supernatural flavor to the story which
both feels confusing and often out of place, though adding to Tonto's
mystique but also to his establishment as a totally silly character.
And what's the deal with having Fichtner cut out and consume the
hearts of his adversaries while he's clearly a stupendously terifying
character already? Despite Depp's presence, The Lone Ranger
couldn't connect with American audiences and ended up a domestic
flop, though at the moment of writing it's too early to tell whether
the same is true from an international perspective. For this failure
producers and actors, in an odd moment of anger made public, blamed
the critics who according to them panned the movie for its numerous
production troubles, but that's a wholly nonsensical notion since due
to the ever growing advent of opinionated online writing about movies
critics just aren't heeded to as they once used to be: also, many
movies critics regard as bad continue to do well regardless
(Transformers, Scary Movie, etc.). Apparently the
people that made this movie just didn't see both the lack of creative
quality in their own project – though it's not as bad as some would
have you believe, it's definitely not a grand and memorable
blockbuster flick either – and the overuse of Disney's formulaic
line of thinking that already started to backfire on the Pirates
movies. Incidentally, those that follow the current TV-series Hell on Wheels, that largely delves into the same historic and thematic material as this film, will find little in here that that show didn't do before (and better). Except for the train chase of course.
Red
2: ***/*****, or 7/10
Sequel
to Red (2010) (Retired: Extremely Dangerous), based on
the graphic novels by Warren Ellis, continues the simple tradition
its predecessor so successfully kicked off, delightfully combining
well respected grand actors with dynamic action sequences and any
number of nifty explosions. Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen
Mirren reunite as a band of retired government agents, all still
extremely accomplished killers nevertheless. Morgan Freeman has been
traded in for Anthony Hopkins and David Thewlis, which is not the
worst deal imaginable though Freeman's charming character is still
sorely missed (but even in an over-the-top action franchise like
this, dead is dead). Living a quiet, everyday life with his new
girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), ex-CIA operative Frank Moses
(Willis) has no intention of getting mixed up with gunfights and
conspiracies again, but such things tend to find him regardless. When
his paranoid, mentally unhinged pal Marvin resorts to faking his own
death, Moses finds himself sucked into another plot revolving around
a portable nuclear bomb hidden in the Kremlin, something he is
rumoured to be involved in. As was the case in the previous film,
it's necessary for him and his friends to travel around the globe in
order to piece together the puzzle, which brings them to exotic (or
close to), luxurious locales including Moscow and Paris, a staple of
spy films but delivered with ample fervour not to get noticed. Thrown
in the mix are Hopkins as an unbalanced inventor of weapons of mass
destruction who has spend 20 years in a looney bin, Thewlis as a
shady information dealer who much prefers the good things in life
(like hideously expensive rare wines) over gunplay and gratuitous
violence, Catherine Zeta-Jones as a foxy agent sharing a history with
Moses and out to seduce him once more, and, as before, Brian Cox as a
former Russian KGB-officer and hopeless romantic who appreciates the
sight of his beloved Helen Mirren offing people over all else. As the
merry band of aging killers shoots and bombs its way through the
plot, Moses must also come to terms with his younger and
inexperienced girlfriend, who now considers this sort of bloody
adventure a neat holiday trip and bonding experience, and takes as
much points as she can in the art of mayhem, much to his chagrin (and
a far cry from the not quite so enthusiastic Sarah from the first
film). Suffice to say, if you're not a fan of guns and other assorted
weaponry, this movie is definitely not recommended to you. However,
like the first Red, this successor is nothing but a highly
entertaining action flick that appropriates the huge talents of the
renowned actors it has brought together to great effect, clearly
enabling the ensemble to have a blast itself. Though the movie is
otherwise devoid of narrative surprises, the high levels of good fun
and a decent number of high paced action scenes make for a decent way
to spend your two hours.
