News for today's 2018

Elysium: District 10?

1:00 AM Tukiyooo 0

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Elysium</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/elysium/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>3.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity, gore and strong bloody violence</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span></span></span><br /><br />            <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on the evidence thus far, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp has only one story to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Elysium</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> feels much like his previous film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/08/district-9-enthusiastic-10.html">District 9</a></i>, writ larger: another saga of oppressed “aliens” seeking a way to rebel against their cruel and privileged overlords. The setting and opposing teams have changed slightly, and Blomkamp clearly has a bigger budget this time at bat, but the key plot points are essentially the same; even the hardware and weaponry look familiar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cn8Ok9CVI7HtLVOOe37VNtYP6oUKS-u6M5XChLzu0jhsHbsMU6YKb6RvOuwISWmRHu4Mz58v3XiXFQK3mhoGNI2ghh7wI8-XuHcFQMW96HFaAl7OtZwOOus6Haf2lC1jGHAay5u1UqM/s1600/Elysium+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cn8Ok9CVI7HtLVOOe37VNtYP6oUKS-u6M5XChLzu0jhsHbsMU6YKb6RvOuwISWmRHu4Mz58v3XiXFQK3mhoGNI2ghh7wI8-XuHcFQMW96HFaAl7OtZwOOus6Haf2lC1jGHAay5u1UqM/s400/Elysium+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">His impulsive plans having failed yet again, Max (Matt Damon) finds himself trapped on<br />a medical table, while the coldly arrogant Delacourt (Jodie Foster) orders some<br />purloined computer data stripped from his brain ... not at all bothered by the fact that<br />this process will kill him.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That said, political oppression has been a big-screen sci-fi staple going all the way back to 1927’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Metropolis</i>, and it often produces great drama. So we can forgive Blomkamp the familiarity ... this time. (He would be wise, however, to move in a different direction henceforth.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The South African-born filmmaker has a solid eye and ear for social strife — no surprise, given his homeland — which contributed, in great part, to the narrative power of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>. Now embraced by the seductive lure of Hollywood, Blomkamp has turned his disapproving eye on the United States, and its dysfunctional immigration policy; the results aren’t likely to be embraced by red staters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The year is 2154, and the entire Earth has become an environmental wasteland, ruined by industrial excess, land mismanagement, resource depletion and various other unchecked global horrors we currently practice, with no eye toward future consequences. Every country, in turn, has become part of a planetwide ghetto, the 99 percent left to scrabble and squabble among themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But not entirely. Movement and behavior are monitored by android peacekeepers that employ computer-chip tracking to maintain a veritable police state bereft of basic human decency. And humor: Just as it isn’t smart, in our here and now, to crack wise when stopped by a traffic cop, it is sheer folly to act smug with one of these gun-toting “law officers.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George Orwell’s influence weighs heavily, and his vision has come to pass: Big Brother really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> watching, and doing so from a massive orbiting space station dubbed Elysium, where the very wealthy have fled in order to enjoy a life of pleasure and privilege among lush gardens and sparkling architecture. Automated med-bays can repair, reconstruct or eradicate anything, from broken bones to cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blomkamp knows his science-fiction, Elysium being a verdant cross between the domed forests of 1972’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Running</i>, and the technological wonders of Larry Niven’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ringworld</i>novels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br />  <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Travel takes place between Elysium and the surface, but only under carefully monitored conditions, and only involving the elite. One such individual is John Carlyle (William Fichtner), who supervises a massive industrial plant in the Spanish-speaking wasteland of greater Los Angeles. His employees include Max (Matt Damon), an orphan who grew up tough, flirted with car theft and other minor crimes, and now is trying to stay out of prison.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Desperate civilians, many of them ill and injured, routinely attempt to reach Elysium’s life-restoring embrace in shuttles stolen by Spider (Wagner Moura), a revolutionary-cum-human trafficker who knows Max from back in the day. It’s a perilous trip, particularly since Elysium’s Secretary of Defense — Jodie Foster, as Delacourt — deals with such incursions by blasting the shuttles out of the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any allusion to desperate Mexican migrants attempting to crash American borders is, of course, completely intentional.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max has two staunch friends, although both relationships are compromised. Julio (Diego Luna) is a buddy from Max’s larcenous past, the life he’s trying to leave behind. Frey (Alice Braga) is the girl who left Max behind; although inseparable as children, she grew up to become a nurse — a respected occupation, even in these harsh surroundings — and Max simply wasn’t part of that career path.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One horrific industrial accident later, everything changes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now having nothing to lose, Max must — simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i> — get to Elysium. He allows Spider’s men to bolt him into a strengthening exo-skeleton, complete with a computer port wired directly into his brain: necessary in order to clone an Earthbound Elysium official’s all-important ID and tracking data. Indignant fury prompts Max to choose Carlyle as his target, little knowing that the industrial magnate and Delacourt have their own sinister plans for Elysium’s future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max gets far, far more than he bargained for, and suddenly is fleeing for his life: not only from every peacekeeping android in the city, but also from Kruger (Sharlto Copley), the psychopathic mercenary Delacourt has hired clandestinely, to do her Earthbound dirty work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Copley will be remembered as the hapless protagonist of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>: the low-level office wonk suddenly beset by dangers he scarcely comprehended. That’s the role Damon plays here, his Max trying to survive from one moment to the next, and having absolutely no idea how to improve his chances, or deal with revelations beyond his understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a solid heroic archetype, and Damon plays it well, making Max an essentially noble blue-collar type turned reluctant warrior. He’s certainly no superhero, even when outfitted with the exo-skeleton; he remains vulnerable, and we feel every trauma inflicted upon his increasingly scarred body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Foster’s Delacourt is a chill piece of work: refined and elegant in the public eye — goodness, she even speaks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">French</i> — and coldly ruthless behind the scenes. She’s every bit as evil as the feral Kruger; the only difference is that she can “pass” for gracious, when necessary, whereas he’s a berserker monster. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To my knowledge, Foster hasn’t played any outright villains until now; she does so here with considerable panache, every inch a conniving, soulless Lucrezia Borgia. She’s well-matched by Copley, whose Kruger is the stuff of nightmares: a sarcastic maniac who taunts his victims to their deaths, his heavy Afrikaner accent somehow making him even scarier.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fichtner is equally lethal, but in the calm, unruffled manner of a Gestapo general blandly sending another trainload of Jews into the ovens; human life simply has no value in Carlyle’s eyes. Luna, alternatively, deftly makes Julio the best of all possible loyal comrades.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Braga is every inch the woman worth fighting for, particularly when Frey is revealed to have a young daughter (Emma Tremblay) who is dying of leukemia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the other end of the acting spectrum, Moura badly overplays the excitable Spider, making him more of a cartoon than a plausible character. Granted, Copley’s Kruger is a similar exaggeration, but we accept that in a heinous villain. It’s harder to get a bead on Spider, whose emotions swing as wildly as his motives ... and, let’s just say, he’s got impressive hacking skills.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blomkamp and his editors — Julian Clarke and Lee Smith — move the story along at an impressive clip; this is a fast-paced 109 minutes, which helps build tension and excitement. But those who remember <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i> definitely will experience <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">déjà vu</i>: in the broader sense, in terms of how the first act progresses to the second, and then the third; and also with respect to details such as Max’s exo-skeleton and the body-shattering weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, as with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>, the action here is very, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> gory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Production designer Philip Ivey does superlative work in contrasting Elysium’s pampered “haves” with the have-nots left on Earth. Establishing shots in Mexico’s poorest communities echo the Johannesburg slums of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>, whereas Vancouver’s lush suburbs double for Elysium. Special-effects coordinator Cameron Waldbauer does wonders with Elysium’s massive, wheel-shaped interior: a realized architectural miracle on par with the imaginative vistas within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/07/inception-bad-dream.html">Inception</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to know, however, how Elysium retains its essential atmosphere, since visiting ships simply “slip inside” the wheel, with no need for airlocks or similar details.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ultimately, Blomkamp’s scripted reach badly exceeds his grasp; he builds to a fairy-tale climax that’s simply absurd, raising far too many fresh questions that can’t possibly be answered. In that respect, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i> was tighter, better plotted and more satisfying, its resolution completely reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So while <i>Elysium</i> certainly doesn’t represent a sophomore slump, I hope Blomkamp has gotten this particular socio-political harangue out of his system, and can move on to something fresher next time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>

Elysium (2013) • View trailer 3.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity, gore and strong bloody violence By Derrick Bang Based o...

The Lone Ranger: The mild, mild West

6:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>The Lone Ranger</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/disney/theloneranger/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Two stars. Rating: PG-13, for intense action violence and suggested gore</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a> • </b></span>Originally published in <i><a href="http://www.davisenterprise.com/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">The Davis Enterprise</a></i>, 7.5.13</b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>            <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best that can be said for this fiasco, is that it’s marginally superior to director William A. Fraker’s leaden, charmless 1981 film, <i>The Legend of the Lone Ranger</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that’s damning with <i>very</i>faint praise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwU1YzZ7KG-TtIWqjB5Zx-is2ZYgbMKz-PvSW8BRmZw9vo-e0fY5sb8rO2wf3v3u1jNC9zZV-JCPXMkiMjqkoYPEjRIlp9RMyVUwEO1BAl9mSb59EAuIg9EwwZeNl1VvjKpXAcklLKLg/s504/Lone+Ranger+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwU1YzZ7KG-TtIWqjB5Zx-is2ZYgbMKz-PvSW8BRmZw9vo-e0fY5sb8rO2wf3v3u1jNC9zZV-JCPXMkiMjqkoYPEjRIlp9RMyVUwEO1BAl9mSb59EAuIg9EwwZeNl1VvjKpXAcklLKLg/s400/Lone+Ranger+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Having failed to persuade a Comanche tribe that war with the neighboring white-man<br />settlement is a bad idea, Tonto (Johnny Depp, left) and the Lone Ranger (Armie<br />Hammer) are left in a painfully vulnerable position. And it's about to get worse, when<br />scorpions come calling...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chief among that earlier film’s many flaws was the block-of-wood “performance” from no-name star Klinton Spilsbury, in (thank God) his only big-screen appearance. Michael Horse, as Tonto, acted circles around him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But pretty much everything else was wrong, as well; even the usually dependable John Barry turned in a listless score that was marred further by a pokey, half-speed rendition of “The William Tell Overture” — the Lone Ranger’s iconic theme — that brought the already sluggish drama to a dead stop.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I give composer Hans Zimmer credit for his spirited, cheer-inducing handling of “The William Tell Overture” during this new film’s climax, and I credit director Gore Verbinski for knowing how best to use it. Kudos, as well, to Verbinski and special-effects supervisors Tim Alexander and Gary Brozenich, for two audacious train chases: a good one to open the film, and a dog-nuts-sensational one to close it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But pretty much everything else is wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For openers, this clumsy, overcooked mess runs a butt-numbing 149 minutes: a “privilege” Verbinski apparently earned because his similarly bloated <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> entries have made a gazillion bucks for Disney. Mind you, length is fine if the script demands it, but that’s far from the case here; as my watch’s illuminated dial ticked off the minutes — depressingly slowly — toward the two-hour mark, I desperately hoped we were about to wrap things up ... but no, the slog continued, mercilessly, for another half-hour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The major problem is that Verbinski and his scripters — Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio and Justin Haythe — can’t decide what sort of movie to make. On the one hand, they more-or-less attempt to honor the existing Lone Ranger mythos, as established by the popular radio series (1933-54) and TV series (1949-57). I appreciate the effort, half-hearted though it may be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the other hand, they blend this often grim drama with the sort of jokey, slapstick tone that marked the <i>Pirates</i> series ... no surprise there, since Elliott and Rossio wrote all four entries in that franchise. No surprise, as well, that Johnny Depp’s Tonto is the same sort of mincing, scowling, alternate-reality caricature that the actor made of Capt. Jack Sparrow. The only difference is that Tonto isn’t ever drunk ... although the film’s scripters flirt with that notion, as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br />  <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two extremes of tone simply don’t work; at times, the mix becomes deeply offensive. The film’s low point — and it’s a ghastly, horrifying miscalculation — comes when an entire Comanche tribe is slaughtered by a corrupt U.S. Cavalry captain and his Gatling gun-toting soldiers. Moments later, our heroes crack wise as usual, and events proceed in that farcical fashion, as if nothing significant has occurred.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Comanches aren’t mentioned again, despite their relevance to Tonto’s back-story. Hey, what’s a few hundred dead Injuns, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thoroughly, reprehensibly tasteless.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enduring that sequence and its aftermath, in the moment, I couldn’t believe Disney had signed off on it. Days later, I <i>still</i> can’t believe it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heinous though it is, that’s merely an isolated incident. The bigger, ongoing problem concerns this film’s depiction of John Reid — the Lone Ranger — who is played by Armie Hammer as a prissy fop, idealistic far beyond the point of absurdity, and utterly incapable of doing or saying the right thing. He is, in short, an irredeemable fool: a clown who exists solely to serve as a foil for Depp’s Tonto.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No fault of Hammer’s; he was directed this way. Indeed, he’s quite convincing as an imbecilic, bumbling, starry-eyed näif.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until, that is, he has to shift gears so that Reid can truly, seriously mourn the loss of a brother who is murdered — and has his heart cut out and <i>eaten</i> — by this story’s key villain. Suddenly, Hammer’s otherwise dainty performance doesn’t seem so amusing. Nor is it as successful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I simply cannot understand why modern filmmakers find it necessary to defecate on the carefully cultivated legacy — sometimes generations in the making — of characters who mean a great deal to fans who grew up with them, back in the day. Why irritate the people who care — the acolytes who will recognize the name, and expect a certain fidelity toward folklore — when it would be easier, and safer, to simply invent <i>new</i> characters, and establish <i>new</i> traditions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The notoriously campy big-screen revivals of <i>I Spy</i> and <i>Wild, Wild West</i> — as two examples — were shameful financial duds, driving a stake through the possibility of any serious remakes. This new debacle — call it Verbinski’s Folly — is equally disgraceful, and I hope Disney posts a whopping financial loss on its (reported) $250 million budget.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To cases, then:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film unfolds in the fashion of <i>The Princess Bride,</i> as a fable related to an impressionable young listener. We begin in San Francisco, during the Depression, as a young boy (Mason Cook, suitably wide-eyed) visits the “Wild West” exhibit in a large carnival. Pausing at a display case showing a wizened Native American “in his natural habitat,” the boy is astonished to see the statue’s eyes flicker. Indeed, this is a very, <i>very</i> old Tonto, who is deeply moved by the kid’s cowboy outfit and black domino mask.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, so, Tonto tells his story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We move backward to 1869, as residents of the small Texas town of Colby cheer when railroad baron Latham Cole (Tom Wilkinson) enthusiastically proclaims that the “iron horse” soon will connect their community — and the entire United States — from sea to shining sea. First, though, there’s an old matter to deal with: the proper hanging of notorious outlaw Burch Cavendish (William Fichtner, grimy down to his blackened teeth), soon to arrive by train.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The local rangers, led by Dan Reid (James Badge Dale), ride out to meet the train. Conveniently, its passengers include Reid’s younger brother, John, returning after years of absence, during which he has become an idealistic, big-city lawyer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also on the train, locked up alongside Cavendish: Tonto ... for reasons of his own.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cavendish manages to escape, with help from his outlaw gang. Dan mounts a posse that John insists on joining, much to the consternation of Rebecca (Ruth Wilson), married to Dan but apparently still carrying a torch for John. Her son, Danny (Bryant Prince), is understandably confused by his mother’s behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(We wonder, throughout this entire film, if Danny actually is John’s son. The question remains unresolved.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Things subsequently go very, very bad; there’s a reason John Reid subsequent adopts a new identity as the <i>lone</i>ranger. He owes his rescue to Tonto, whose generosity comes reluctantly, and only because a wild white stallion — regarded as an intelligent, mystical spirit — “chooses” John for greater things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This majestic beast steals the film (not all that difficult, considering). Silver, far more intelligent than either John or Tonto, has a disconcerting tendency to appear in treetops, or on the roof of a burning barn. Reid’s new mount also is utterly fearless, whether galloping amid gunfire or (ahem) atop a moving train, leaping from one car to the next.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Tonto mutters “Something very wrong with that horse,” we can’t help laughing ... because, actually, something is very <i>right</i>. Silver’s various antics are masterminded by horse-wrangler Bobby Lovgren, who worked similar magic in <i>Seabiscuit</i> and <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2011/12/war-horse-truly-incredible-journey.html">War Horse</a></i>. As a result, Silver displays far more personality than his two-legged co-stars.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, the chase is on, and on ... and on. Tonto and the Lone Ranger get caught, escape, get caught again, escape again. They bicker, make up, bicker again. Cavendish gets caught again, and <i>he</i> escapes again. Over and over and over. Meanwhile, Cole makes smarmy advances toward Rebecca, who is understandably wary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sidebar characters enter the mix: Barry Pepper, as the morally challenged Cavalry officer; and Helena Bonham Carter, actually quite amusing as Red Harrington, a peg-legged madam whose scrimshaw-adorned false limb conceals a rather lethal gun. We’re told that Red lost her leg to Cavendish, with a further implication that he may have eaten it. (<i>Such</i> palatable details, in this story.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No question, Depp’s shifty-eyed performance can be quite funny at times. His double-takes are superbly timed, and he gets considerable mileage from a variety of scowls: doubtful, bewildering, angry, playful. We wait for Tonto to crack a smile; I’m not sure it ever actually happens ... and that, too, is amusing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Far less amusing — indeed, tedious — is the amount of time Tonto spends “feeding” the dead crow that adorns his headpiece. Not even the Monty Python gang would have beaten a pallid joke to death so relentlessly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fichtner is memorably nightmarish: every inch a loathsome villain. Wilkinson is sinister in his own right, on the level of a slow burn; we wonder, throughout, what he’s actually up to. Dale’s Dan Reid is the story’s most credibly “real” character: a decent man whose passing we mourn deeply.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bonham Carter’s Red Harrington is a hoot, but Pepper can’t begin to navigate the ethical extremes assigned to his character. The members of Cavendish’s gang aren’t allowed to display much personality, and therefore remain anonymous blobs. Rebecca is similarly ill-defined; Wilson’s performance is so muted that she seems to be in a drug-induced haze (actually true only once).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Things are pretty bad when the stand-out characters are a horse and the kid listening to this saga unfold. And they can’t begin to sustain a 149-minute movie.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nobody can. Nobody does. <i>The Lone Ranger</i> is a clumsy, badly directly and atrociously scripted slog.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When radio audiences heard the Lone Ranger shout “Hi-yo, Silver ... away!” — back in the day — they knew an exciting riding sequence was about to take place. It’s too bad this film’s Silver couldn’t have dragged Verbinski, the writers and most of the cast far, far away ... thus sparing us the need to sit through this dud.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>