Alone at the Lone Ranger

Gore Verbinski's Lone Ranger is apparently a huge flop -- opening with about $50 million in sales, where it cost an estimated $225 million to make.

I can't say why it cost so much money to make, but I do not understand why it opened so poorly -- it was much hyped and, though the reviews have been bad, you would think that that wouldn't matter (will it stop people from seeing Grownups 2 this weekend?).

It's really not a horrid movie.

But that's not to say it's good.

I'm sure someone has said that it's Pirates of the Caribbean in the Old West.  Given Verbinski directed Pirates and Johnny Depp stars in heavy makeup, I can see that.

But it's not half as clever nor does the camp work half as well.

It's too long by half an hour.

I thought Armie Hammer was good as the Masked Man -- hey, he's supposed to be an uptight guy -- and I thought Depp chewed the scenery as Tonto.

It also wasn't as funny as it wanted to be.  Some of the visual humor just wasn't funny.  I laughed heartily at some of the comments.

And, I have to add (I know, again, this isn't original material) the horse (Silver) was probably the best part.  And, yes, the funniest.  Poor Depp, can't beat a horse for laughs.  All he has is a dead raven to work with.

But, still, there are good action bits, with Depp and Hammer bouncing around trains -- twice -- and doing all sorts of action/adventure things that border on slapstick & ridiculous.  And Tom Wilkerson makes a fine villain, grinding through his lines like a real Westerner who happens to know John Locke.

So, I say, act like it's an adventure and go see it.  It's not significantly different from the other pallid action hero films this summer -- Iron Man, for instance.