The Lone Ranger

Exotic and beautifully shot summer bollocks. Depp is a lot of fun and Hammer is alright, but neither of them, nor the cookie-cutter script are enough to keep us interested for almost two and a half hours. It's a breezy and brilliantly scored adventure for the whole family, but it's cold as a penguin’s butt inside and relies too heavily on the fact that we're still interested in Depp's peculiar pirate character – very little from Verbinski. A better 3* (11/28/2015)

It looked it’d be a real dud, but it’s watchable. Those who were thrilled by Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull will certainly not be bored, as this film is similar both formally and aesthetically and in terms of the plot. It certainly has a unique mix of traditional Western elements (set design, costumes) perfectly matched in an excellent visual package (great effects, dynamic action scenes). The middle part of the film has are several redundant funny scenes and boring stretches, but William Fichtner and Tom Wilkinson are very entertaining, and the main duo of heroes is a classic. So, it’s fun though not impressive, and everyone knows how it will end from the beginning. Still a likable thing, though. (03/02/2014)

I can't remember the last time I had such a great time in the movie theatre. Gore Verbinski lived up to his reputation as a megalomaniac with a sense of humor, for which I am truly grateful. As well as for all the metric tons of references (not even Tarantino could squeeze that many tasteful quotes from Leone's films, from Once Upon a Time in the West to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to A Fistful of Dynamite, into all his films combined, not to mention the allusions to The Wild Bunch and many other classics of the genre)! The story has everything it should have and is very easily accessible even to people who don't know the Lone Ranger at all. The villains are extra negative, the two main positive heroes are likable, their (not only) verbal shootouts are excellent, Johnny Depp's every grimace is priceless (say what you will, critics). The finale of "Tonto on the Machine" is thrilling, extremely imaginative, funny and suspenseful, but I cannot agree with those who say that it is preceded by two hours of boredom. Bah! I'd much rather see a second installment of The Lone Ranger than a fifth Pirates, which has already burned out once without Verbinski. So, perhaps... (07/09/2013)

Cowboys and Indians for the twenty-first century pulling out all the stops; the bad ones and the good ones. And the dozens (dozens!) of neat, not immediately obvious allusions (the cicadas and the birds in the bush, the umbrella in the desert etc.), paradoxically more than in Rango, prove better than anything else that the creating team didn’t treat this as just another product. And, yes, this is unarguably “just" the Pirates of the Caribbean in Western garb. However, it should be said that, along with the first Pirates, this is the best to come out of that “series". (07/05/2013)

A multi-genre homage to a century of cinema? The purest western with the most classic vaudeville gags? Indeed. A big train robbery and easy girls that even Méliès couldn't make up. Or Hell on Wheels through the lens of a comic book hero and progress that you can't stop, even in 1933 (that's when they could play with labels to make Tonto a notorious savage). General Custer keeps his narcissist in check at all times, the ugliest Jane Eyre Ruth Wilson has grown up a bit, Armie Hammer is a worthy successor to the Lone Rangers (ever since the 1933 radio series, novels, comics, and more) and of course, Tom Wilkinson and Helena Bonham Carter are absolute classics. And Hans Zimmer isn't ashamed to cram the entire "William Tell Overture" and its finale into the soundtrack! (07/03/2013)