The Lone Ranger
…rides again. This time Range, played by Armie Hammer, is
mostly second fiddle to the 100 megawatt star power of Johnny Depp as Tonto and
Depp does not let his audience down. The
director is Gore Verbinsky and he, along with most of the writers and other
crew, produced the Pirates of the Caribbean films with Depp.
The results are similar, a light hearted, historically
questionable romp that embraces ‘summer movie’ with immense exuberance and
juvenile sensibility. Huzzah! As such, there are lots of fast paced action
scenes, although none of those CG I things that can’t really be followed by the human
eye.
The Lone Ranger
The action scenes are interspersed with luscious views of
the old west the way John Ford used to show them. We get magnificent views of
Monument Valley, Moab and other scenic
There are good guys – in white hats – bad guys, gunfights,
belles in distress and a sad-eyed boy missing his missing father. All eyes are
on the charismatic Depp and the nearly as charismatic Hammer as they ride,
shoot, fall, get trampled and spend a lot of time outside speeding trains in
search of the bad guys. Often they are aided with a gravity defying white horse
that always seems to know where to be and when.
I've noted in some reviews that the action wears thin on
some, but I didn't find this to be the case. The action scenes fit neatly into
the story and are delivered with originality and aplomb. If there’s any
weakness to the story, it might be the story on either end of the main story,
referred to in movie commentary as a ‘frame,’ that simply gets somewhat dull.
In the
end, good triumphs over evil, the bad guys get their just desserts and the Lone
Ranger ride and Tonto off into the sunset. And, **spoiler alert**, Mr. Rossini’s famous
overture gets a good workout.
This is
the kind of movie the whole family can enjoy. The kind you used to be able to
view with the whole gang piled into the back of a station wagon at the local
drive-in. For that, I’ll give The Lone Ranger three out of four Wilders, who, I
believe, would have enjoyed this film as much as anyone.
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