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| Johnny Depp and Tonto and Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger |
Occasionally fun but bloated makes for one long "Ranger"
Hi-Yo Silver, please make this end! The wild west never seemed so tedious in the new big- budget, big-screen adaptation of the old TV series "The Lone Ranger." Granted, it's fun to hear the "William Tell Overture" amidst a few sporadically fun moments, but is still too long, tries too hard and improves nothing on the original. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice-taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. Directed by Gore Verbinski, who's teamed with Depp in the past to great success on such films as the "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the animated "Rango," fails to recreate that some same big screen magic in spite of a handful of fun moments, and much like a couple of sequences in the film, is largely a train wreck. There are two major problems with "The Lone Ranger:" one is an uneven, overambitious narrative that ends up about 30-40 minutes too long, with an especially sluggish middle act. The second is the miscasting of the bland Hammer (best known from "The Social Network") as the title character, played here as a wimpish, uptight city boy who literally stumbles upon his true calling, lacking the charm and dash of the popular 1950s TV series. Though Depp is inspired casting in yet another eccentric turn he's become known for, after a couple of box-office duds (last summer's "The Dark Shadow" among them) even he cannot carry this bloated film on his back, though he, along with that dead bird atop his head, tries valiantly. The most memorable of the cast is character actor William Fichtner as the primary villain, and Helena Bonham Carter as the madame with a leg up on the competition, not to mention the white horse eventually known as Silver, who genuinely steals most of the scenes from Depp and Hammer. By the time it finally picks up some energy in its action-packed finale, you'll be ready for it to end; on that note, the mildly enjoyable but overdone "The Lone Ranger" seems more "The Long Ranger" for its butt-enduring 2 hour and 30 minute running time. In what has already been a less-than-impressive summer, a forgettable "Lone Ranger" is its biggest disappointment yet, ke-moh-sah-bee.
Wes's Grade: C
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