The Lone Ranger
2013
**½
Director: Gore Verbinski
Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, Bryant Prince
The Lone Ranger and Tonto made their first appearance in a 1933 radio show, and since those days they have featured in all types of media. This origin story attempts to reintroduce the characters to a new generation of moviegoers. The story is set in 1869, when an idealistic lawyer John Reid returns to his home town of Colby. When an escaped outlaw kills his brother, John becomes the masked lawman, accompanied on and off by his flaky Comanche sidekick. Despite an homage to the genre's best, Once Upon a Time in the West, where the arrival of the railroad also brought misery and not prosperity, the script is clunky and formulaic, and the characterisation is all over the place. With Gore Verbinski directing, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio co-writing the script, and Johnny Depp goofing in the lead, it is no surprise that this big budget action blockbuster is little more than a Western version of Pirates of the Caribbean. However, it's not all bad news. The film is bookended with two inventively choreographed and wonderfully entertaining train chases, the best ones since Buster Keaton's The General.
