Lone Ranger, The (2013) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Western

Tagline: Never Take Off the Mask

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, comes Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' "The Lone Ranger," a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice-taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) and man of the law John Reid (Armie Hammer) are opposites brought together by fate and must join forces to battle greed and corruption.

Storyline: In the 1930s, an elderly Tonto tells a young boy the tale of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. An idealistic lawyer, he rides with his brother and fellow Texas Rangers in pursuit of the notorious Butch Cavendish. Ambushed by the outlaw and left for dead, John Reid is rescued by the renegade Comanche, Tonto, at the insistence of a mysterious white horse and offers to help him to bring Cavendish to justice. Becoming a reluctant masked rider with a seemingly incomprehensible partner, Reid pursues the criminal against all obstacles. However, John and Tonto learn that Cavendish is only part of a far greater injustice and the pair must fight it in an adventure that would make them a legend. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Storyline: In 1933, in San Francisco, a boy visits the Wild West in a sideshow and meets an elderly Tonto in a chamber and the Comanche tells the story of The Lone Ranger to him. In 1869, the idealistic prosecutor John Reid returns by train to his hometown Colby. In the same train, it is traveling the criminal Butch Cavendish that will be judged for his crimes and hanged in the town due to a request of Latham Cole, who represents the railroad company. However, Butch escapes and John rides with his brother Dan Reid and six other Texas Rangers to capture him. However, the rangers are ambushed and killed by the notorious outlaw and his gang and only John survives. He teams up with Tonto to bring Butch Cavendish to justice in a dangerous journey of discoveries.
- Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on December 11, 2013 -- Once a staple of cinema, westerns have become a risk studios aren't often willing to take. Action comedies had a good run in the '90s, but have floundered in recent years with far more flops than hits. And remakes and reboots... well, tricky business all around. So why oh why would a studio in its prime, having just acquired both the Marvel Movie Universe and a certain galaxy far, far away, devote $250 million-plus to an action-comedy western remake/reboot (pick your poison) of one of the most iconic American film serials and TV series? A (relative) box office bomb that grossed a mere $90 million domestically and eked out just $260 million worldwide? Five words: Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski. Or perhaps just four: Pirates of the Caribbean. The hope -- or, in hindsight, the delusion -- being that Bruckheimer and Verbinski could strike box office gold yet again with another franchise in the making; one that just so happened to star Pirates frontman Johnny Depp. No, The Lone Ranger isn't as terrible as you might have heard. It isn't the worst movie of the year, or even the most disappointing. It's more of a train wreck than it believes, though, and throws a tremendous amount of money at the screen for what turns out to be a shipment of damaged goods.

The Lone Ranger begins as the story of Tonto (Depp), told by an old, shriveled sidekick to a young boy wandering through a sideshow where the Comanche is living out his final days. Recounting his first meeting with the fabled Lone Ranger, the film unfolds in flashback, interrupted (quite frustratingly) by the elderly warrior every time the already fickle script suddenly decides to yank its audience out of the action. The Ranger was originally persnickety lawyer John Reid (Armie Hammer, playing co-star rather than leading man), a family man and sworn pacifist who set off into the desert with his brother, Texas Ranger Dan Reid (James Badge Dale), in pursuit of the deadly Cavendish gang. Unfortunately for them, the gang's leader, scarred cannibal Butch (William Fichtner), ambushed the brothers and Dan's fellow lawmen, and didn't take any prisoners. Enter a spirit horse -- primarily a comic relief steed -- who, according to Tonto, revived John and transformed him into a "spirit walker," a warrior who can't be killed in battle. Whether or not John is indeed a supernatural being is the source of much on-screen debate and slapstick silliness, but Tonto believes it to be true, and so goes the movie. Bickering every step and gallop along the way, Tonto and the newly masked, newly dubbed Lone Ranger forge a reluctant alliance, each one determined to bring Cavendish to justice; John by way of the law, Tonto by way of the grave.

Unnecessary, criss-crossing subplots abound, while sweaty, grimy, yellow-toothed gunslingers, murderers and conniving cons lurk around every corner. Helena Bonham Carter is brothel owner Red Harrington, with a gun mounted in her porcelain leg and a knack for aiming straight. Ruth Wilson is Dan's widow Rebecca, who of course has long been the secret love of John and ends up in the thick of it when our hero at long last springs into action. Bryant Prince is Rebecca's son, because, you know, PG-13 action-comedy rule #1 is toss a boy into the fray and watch the precocious little rebel bloom. (This one gets a slingshot.) Mason Cook is a second kid, this one The Lone Ranger's biggest fan. Barry Pepper is a turncoat cavalry officer who ditches principle to make a buck. Stephen Root pops up as the president of the Transcontinental Railroad Company and promptly gets stabbed in the back. And Tom Wilkinson is Latham Cole, a wealthy railroader who may as well twirl his mustache, wring his hands and wear a name tag that reads "I'm the real villain!" Followed by a collective, off-camera mwa ha ha from Verbinski and his screenwriters, none of whom manage to hide Cole's intentions in the slightest.

Hammer, meanwhile, pounces on every scene with the tenacity and enthusiasm of an upstart actor with something to prove. And, for what it's worth, his energy lends the film's action suspense, its comedy some heart, and its more dramatic beats some much-needed weight. It's just a shame the story isn't really interested in the Lone Ranger or his rise to hero-dom, much as its first and second acts insist. This is Tonto's flick, no two ways about it. He even nabs the infinitely more interesting backstory and quest for revenge. Depp, though, meanders from one set-piece to the next, indulging in his latest experiment in eccentricity. He has a great deal of fun, and frankly he's fun to watch. But the thrill of seeing Depp morph into another tragic cartoon character is mostly gone, having diminished more and more with each leftfield role he's tackled. The film is fun too I suppose, and funny enough to lasso a few sparse laughs. Then again, it's all so ludicrously over-the-top, particularly during its climactic dual-train chase, that it's hard not to laugh at its expense. It doesn't help that anything resembling a friendship between John and Tonto is shelved for a future installment that will probably never come. The duo argue, fight, insult and betray their way across the wilderness, making it that much more difficult to enjoy their company.

Bloated, ungainly and much too long, The Lone Ranger fumbles its fundamentals. Staged as the first installment in a trilogy rather than a satisfying standalone film, it sets the stage for its own failures. Still, there's some dark Looney Tunes-esque fun to be had, especially between Hammer and Depp, so long as you're willing to switch off the critical portions of your brain, you might just be able to enjoy the movie on its own terms. As Blu-ray releases go, The Lone Ranger's only sin is that its bonus content is too short and too unsatisfying. Otherwise, the disc's striking video presentation and thundering DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track impress.

Trivia:------------
[CSW] -2.3- Either the humor will make this movie very enjoyable or very annoying. Unfortunately for me it was the latter. I don't mind pure escapism but if you happen to find a movie annoying all of the plot holes and lack of any cohesive story-line seem to stick out to such a degree that you not only won't be able to suspend you're disbelief but the opposite, it will seem to make them all the more glaring. This is one of these movies that some will enjoy and some will not but there is no way to predict which way it will affect you until you watch it. I suggest that you either rent it or wait for it to come on television to find out.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10.


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