Review of The Lone Ranger (1956) by Allan C — 30 Aug 2014

Pirates of the Carribean goes out west. Pirates director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Johnny Depp try to take the zany action of the Pirates films and transplant them into a re-imagining of The Lone Ranger, but forgot to include the zany energy of the Pirates films.

The film does capture the pirate level of energy in a couple of train sequences, but those aren't nearly enough to make up for the rather humorless rest of the film. Depp's humor as Captain Jack Sparrow made Pirates stand out, but his stoic Tonto wasn't really give much of a chance to be entertaining.

Maybe the problem is the quite unfunny Armie Hammer was supposed to be the funny one as the title ranger. If Depp had been the ranger, I bet he would have made the film much more entertaining, rather than planing a heroic man of few words.

And Depp can play silent well. Just re-watch "Benny & Joon". Compared to most Bruckheimer productions, the supporting cast is pretty lack luster with the exception of Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Root in small roles.

The rest of the cast is made up of the likes of Barry Pepper and William Fichtner. One and a half stars for two entertaining chase scenes and the wraparound story of old Johnny Depp telling the story to a young fan of The Lone Ranger long after the old west had disappeared.

And yes, I know that wraparound is a ridiculous cliché, but it's one I've always been a sucker for, even in "Young Guns 2". But what I'm most disappointed about is that this film will ensure that no major westerns will be produced for quite some time and also that the filmmakers did not use The Headcoats song "Cowboys are Square," which would have thematically fit very well with the film.

I certainly wasn't expecting a good movie, but I wasn't expecting it to be this bad.