The Lone Ranger has a spectacular final 20 minutes and a good set up for the story and what is to come at the beginning. However, in the middle...The Lone Ranger is a train wreck. It's not just any train wreck, though...it's the most bizarre train wreck anyone is likely to ever see. I'm talking way beyond Under The Rainbow or Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever status. In other words, the final 20 minutes are awesome, the first 5 minutes are good and everything else becomes more and more fascinating as it becomes weirder and weirder.
The film stars Armie Hammer as John Reid...a law enforcer in the old west who is on a train one day and realizes that escaped convict Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) is on the same train. Cavendish has taken Tonto (Johnny Depp) hostage and Reid comes bursting in. Unfortunately, he looks like a fool by letting both Butch and Tonto escape. Then..through events I will not say because I actually do recommending you see this film due to how fascinatingly bad it is...John and Tonto become a team. They then set out for justice by taking down Butch and his crew.
The film is directed by Gore Verbinski who is exactly like Tim Burton. This is because as with Burton, Verbinski did some solid films (Mousehunt, The Mexican, The Ring, The Weather Man) early on in his career and now relies too heavily on Depp to accept the lead in his next film. I don't really see why either of these directors rely on Depp so much. Maybe it's to the directors's faults but Depp has mostly been playing the same character for the past decade. Barnabus Collins, Jack Sparrow, Mad Hatter, Willy Wonka,Tonto and even Frank Tulepo have all been excuses for Depp to have a lot of make up on and act wacky.
Barring Depp's repeat performance....all the performances are fascinatingly bad in this. Hammer seems to be trying his best to put on a southern accent but ends up sounding like a mix of Elmer Fudd and James Van Der Beek in Varsity Blues. Fichtner doesn't even try to be menacing and it shows. Usually a great (and may I add incredibly underrated) actor who can pull of creepy very well...he completely phones it in here and his villainous manners come off as more hilarious than weird or eerie. Tom Wilkinson...another great actor plays a man who has a big part in building The Transcontinental Railroad and he comes off as just plain weird in this making the film very uncomfortable whenever he's on screen. Barry Pepper shows up as a fellow villain and his character wasn't needed at all although Pepper is so over the top it is fun to watch him. Lastly...Helena Bonham Carter is the most unattractive eye candy in film history. She is so strange looking that it's no wondering her character was introduced and then thrown off the screen for an hour and a half.
As with everyone else...the film's length did bother me. At 2 and 1/2 hours...the film does get tedious fairly easily. The film could easily had been cut down by at least 45 minutes. The setting and look of the film is admittedly cool although about 2 hours of the film would have been helped by a lot more action and story development. However, those last 20 minutes are quite cool. Still....The Lone Ranger tries so hard to give off an authentic feeling and tell a realistic story that it quickly becomes a train wreck. However, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an utterly fascinating train wreck that everyone should go see at least once.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, and some suggestive material)
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