THE LONE RANGER

Word of mouth can sometimes be very misleading. Across the pond, the critics have been quite vocal regarding their opinion on the latest stab at one of histories longest running entertainment icons.

There has been comparisons to the ill-fated Wild, Wild West and in general, murmurs of displeasure and dislike.

Were they watching the same film?!?

What we have here is yet more proof that, despite the odd hiccups, there are certain things we can rely on: director Gore Verbinski knows how to deliver some Summer spectacle; writers Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio can deliver outstanding origin stories; and the one Johnny Depp is still THE quintessential quirky character creator. End of. Full stop.

For those not in the know, the list of people above are the team that gave us Pirates Of The Caribbean - the film that no one wanted, based on an outdated ride at Disney World. This origin story that launched a further 3 films - thus turning it into a surprise franchise - showed that when creating an opening salvo, they knew how to deliver the goods. Now with this stab at the story of the masked man defending the people which the law cannot seem to do, they have all created a film that is as smile-inducing, lean-forward laughing and iconic-image forming as their first team-up. Yep, you read that right - The Lone Ranger is as much fun as Pirates Of The Caribbean!

From the get go, the mission here seems to be pure and simple - entertain the heck out of the audience and not pay too much attention to such trivialities as historical timing or location. If it ain't fun or funny, don't leave it in!

With a set up not too dissimilar from the classic The Princess Bride, the story of our hero is told to a young child who, most likely as some audience members will do, interrupts the proceedings to question the motives and the clarity of the storytelling from the old narrator - in this case a 100+ year old Depp claiming to be the original Tonto. At times he looks even more Keith Richards than Keith Richards did in the Pirates sequel - a strange nod to the inspiration of one Captain Jack Sparrow. The plot is mostly linear except for one or two events which help build up abit of mystery around The Masked Man and the Insane Indian until the grand finale.

Before the "OMG" finale though, there is just a heap of slapstick, banter, quirkiness, stunning vistas, stupendous set pieces and one of cinemas greatest real life horses (Tangled's Maximus doesn't count here as we was all CGI.) The White Spirit horse - he doesn't become Silver until the end where Depp yet again steals the show with a corker of a line!) - acts alongside Tonto fantastically, even when he isn't standing in trees wearing hats, walking and running on roofs or licking scorpions off our heroes faces.

It all may sound just a tad too silly but believe that despite how strange it all sounds, it never feels like it's slipping into ridiculous levels where complete suspension of everything is necessary in order for you to survive it.

All of the above is pulled off seamlessly with Depp the right side of fruit loop and Hammer the square-jawed-but-niavely-trusting all-american hero. Their banter harks back to the Laurel & Hardy days of entertainment where looks rather than words speak volumes and creates laughs.

Then you're hit with the train chase finale. Imagine the chase sequence from Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers on speed, with full size trains, a serious lack of sleep, a serious amount of cash spent on special effects, the best use of a ladder committed to celluloid and THAT tune from The Lone Ranger finally blaring out across the speakers which had been noticeably absent until then, and you're half way there! Logistically, it's a nightmare keeping up with as the two trains become more and more detached as they chase each other through the glorious-but-blurred landscape but then you don'y have to! That's the point! Just sit back, relax and accept the insanity of it all and the pleasure that comes with it.

Immense fun and deserving of a follow-up adventure, ignore the American antipathy towards it and go see it for yourself! Hi Ho... Whoops, can't spoil it for you!

UK release date: 09.08.13
Certificate: 12A

DJANGO UNCHAINED

For his fans and haters alike, Tarantino's latest has been a long time coming. 3 years have rolled by since his first serious attempt at a historical piece - Inglorious Basterds - but finally, like a lone gun slinger riding into town, his Django Unchained is tying itself up to the local cinemas hitching post.

And then letting loose in a total bloodbath accompanied by colourful language galore! Yes, this maybe be set in 1858, but this is still a film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

This means that you should expect sass, crass and along with the depicted violence as displayed in his Inglorious Basterds (this is a long way from the cut away techniques of the debut Reservoir Dogs), a inordinate amount of the "n" word.

However, this being Quentin's work, you also get some incredibly quotable lines - "who dat nigger on dat nag?!?" and "you have my curiosity, now you have my attention," - along with his knack for pulling out great performances and pulling out and dusting off performers that have seen better days. Those of you old enough to remember the like of Miami Vice and The Dukes Of Hazzard will delight in some small but significant roles whilst those who watched LOST and Dexter will also be treated to a few smiles. Of course though, these are only side dishes to the main 3 course meal that is served up throughout the films 165 minute running time - Foxx, DiCaprio and Waltz.

These 3 are able to deliver exactly what you would want, and expect, from people of their current reputation - performances that equally make you smile, laugh, wince and ultimately remember why they were cast. The weakest out of the 3 strangely is the films supposed lead Foxx, but this may be down to the simple fact that his is the least "showy" out of them. DiCaprio gets to be the Joe Pesci character - all smooth gears then a burst of terrifying speed and uncontrolableness from out of nowhere. Whilst Waltz is the George Clooney of the operation - all smiles, charm and charisma while the mind is working out the angles and options. Foxx has to make do with the Michael Batman Keaton role to the other two - necessary but sometimes sidelined when they are stealing the limelight... which happens often!

The two biggest surprises of Django Unchained lie in a performance and in its structure. For the first time I can recall, you actually want Samuel L. Jackson to die. And horibbly at that too! His head slave Stephen (yay!) is the biggest, and loudest, back stabber of recent cinematic memory and only just falls short of a "Boo! Hiss!" panto villain. Despite the short temper and burning desire for revenge of Django, it is infact Stephen's desire to see continuity and tradition continue to take place in Candy Land where he has a role of authority, that sees the plan hatched by Waltz's German bounty hunter head further South than they already are.

The second surprise sees Tarantino ditch his non-linear timeline approach and just tell the story in a straight forward beginning, middle and end fashion. Yes, there is a flashback or two, but gone is the cross-over, skipping stylus-on-a-scratched-record method of plotting. This change of editing and style allows you to sit back and relax a tad more, letting the characters and their interactions sink into you further instead of you facing the possible distraction of trying to place all the events in the right time line for you to understand the proceedings better.

As funny as you would hope it would be, alot of the humour (and the very bloody violence) centers around the racism and more specifically the people that practised it, that was in over-abundance back then. The sequence involving the KKK and their desire to hang both Foxx and Waltz is genuinely laugh out loud and upon reflection would easily sit more comfortably in a Farrelly Brothers movie than in a Tarantino one. For those of you who are squeamish or prone to being offended, take note - Django Unchained makes full use of its 18 certificate... when people die here, they die in a spectacularly bloody fashion!

With its Kill Bill Vol 1-esque ending (think the Crazy 88, but Old West style) this sees the disappointing likes of Death Proof left behind and a return to the form that made the video shop employee become a force to be reckoned with and watched within Hollywood. Yee Haw!

UK release date: 18.01.13
Certificate: 18

MOVIES AND THE "WOAH.. DEJA VU!" MOMENT

With the medium of movies in existence for over 100 years now, it doesn't take a degree in rocket science to realise that an aspect of repetitiveness may occasionally creep in from time to time.

Your favourite actor or actress may have a certain catch-phrase, or a certain look that they pull off that traverses some of their films; a director may continuously have his camera move in the same way to add a certain sense of gravitas to the situation, but the actual act of "seen it before" goes way deeper than that!

As with some of the greatest - and dumbest - discoveries of the recent age, the combination of access to the internet AND what would appear to be an infinite amount of spare time on their hands, people have found the "glitches in the matrix" - or to non Matrix fans, all those moments where a tiny voice screams in your head that you've heard/seen it all before.

So, here for your perusal, are some of the situations that, dependant on your frame of mind, could be classed as either: homage, lazy writing/acting, classic-making cinema, or proof that film makers need to up-their-game if they truly want their pieces of art to be classed just as that - classic, cult art - and not on a shop shelf gathering dust...


BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

My personal favourite, be it TV or cinema, is when the character looks directly at you - just you. This act cements the link between them, the do'er, and you, the viewer. It draws you in, letting you in on their joke, their pain, their love, their life. Known as "Breaking The Fourth Wall," here is a collection of your heroes, your villains, your stars, talking to you personally. How many do you recognise?





SON OF A BITCH

Growing up, things that were considered wrong, or naughty, have, over the years, become either more tolerable or acceptable. Some have even become non-existent! What was once a swear/curse word back in the 70's and 80's, are now commonplace - some have even changed into greetings or a way to express a moment of clarity or disguised adoration. "Son of a bitch" is just such a phrase! Look for yourself....

YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?

So, here's the one that should divide the people - is this a great way to propel the story along OR is it just damn lazy writing? At over 8 minutes long, I'm guessing that most people will come down on the side of "lazy writing" rather than fantastic screenplay motivation, after watching this montage. But then again, I could be wrong - maybe I just don't get it....





IT'S GONNA BLOW!

So, you're about to spend a huge amount of your budget on blowing up something infront of the camera and you just know (fingers crossed!) that it's gonna look cool. What do you do to let the audience know this so that they can be prepared for it and revel in its awesomeness?.... So that they don't miss a single second of what probably took months in planning and execution to pull off?.... Easy! Get one of the dumb characters to tell everyone!





Recognise any of the above? Did it put one of your fave films in a new light? Have you dug out that script you were writing - you know, the one that you've been working on for a few years now, the one where the protagonist learns a few valuable lessons along the way etc - and a full bottle of tippex and changed a few lines of dialogue perhaps?.... If so, then "happy trails Hans!"

COWBOYS & ALIENS

Over a year ago, crowds at San Diego's Comic Con were whipped up into a frenzy by early footage of James Bond and Indiana Jones teaming up to battle aliens in the Wild West. It's been a long year but it's time to saddle up finally...

Anticipation can be a double-edged sword. Ask audiences of Avatar, Inception etc and you'll receive mixed opinions influenced by whether they feel it lived up to the hype or not. Director Favreau's genre-meshing movie would appear to be a victim of it's own marketing campaign as the so-simple-how come-its-never-been-done-before idea of cowboys vs aliens struggles to live up to its ideas and the baggage that its stars bring with them.

Mainly Craig's vehicle rather than Ford, here he brings the same rugged but emotionally-lacking performance that made his take on Bond more grittier and grounded than previous incarnations. It worked well there but here in the Old West, his memory-challenged anti-hero needs some warmth or humanisation to it in order for us to want to see him come through all of it in the end. Any emotion is therefore left to the likes of Ford - mean, surly but then a true hero who changes his ways during the course of the adventure - and Rockwell - who brings scared and relatable everyday guy to the party.

Its set pieces are as good as you'd expect from the guy that gave you Iron Man, but maybe that's where part of the slight disappointment lies. That was fun. This feels average with some of the twinkle and life sucked out of it. Where there should be a tongue-in-cheek moment or a humorous interaction between the two iconic-playing actors, we get a slow-paced delivery of sub-plots and an over long drawn-out fragment piecing together of Craig's wiped memory. It walks then it should run and hovers when it should soar.

What it could have, or should have been was a nod towards Firefly/Serenity where Whedon successfully mixed the genres of Westerns and sci-fi together. There it was about emphasis on characterisation and beautiful dialogue to sit with the beautiful vistas, which is what Cowboys & Aliens lacks.

For most, it will be a typical summer blockbuster that ticks the unchallenging, standard boxes that are associated with films released during this period, but for those who want more emotion - be it humour, tension, fear - then they will find it lacking somewhat. It's not a bad film, but the potential of the sum parts - capable director, reliable actors, inventive idea - meant that it could have been a great film. And that is the bitter pill that has to be swallowed by some of the audience. When you care more for the strangely loyal dog more than the humans, be they ones fighting the aliens or abducted by them, something surely is off kilter...

A somewhat wasted opportunity to be alot of peoples new fave film, it's still worth seeing despite the flaws.

UK release date: 17.08.11

Certificate: 12A

TRUE GRIT

The Coen Brothers return once again but this time there's no original material from them - they're taking on a treasured classic.

Going back to the source - Charles Portis' popular novel - The Brothers have scripted the screenplay and brought their camera's upon "The Western" that it seems they've been been dying to do. From their modern attempt ("No Country For Old Men") to their various versions of good gunslingers ("Blood Simple") they have been forging connections to bring a modern masterpiece to the screen.

Some of their best collaborative actors return to do a combination of strong and out-standing performances - Brolin is good and solid as the cause of events for the film and Bridges knocks it out of the park where he not only matches his tour-de-force of The Dude, but dare I say it, also matches The Duke who won the Oscar for his interpretation of the drunk, grizzled Marshall in 1969. His gruff delivery of wisdom is finely balanced with deliciously devilish quips - "I do not know this man" throughout the running time and lavish vistas.

The outstanding surprise though is Hailee Steinfeld. As the old-before-her-time 14 year old who hires Bridges to avenge her father's death, she literally bends the camera towards her every time she appears on screen. At times it feels that Damon and Bridges have to fight to be seen when she gets to do her thing - a relentless barrage of stubbornness and determination that sees her swing between mother and boss.

For those who have resisted the films of The Coen Brothers due to their quirkiness and idiosyncrasies, this is the perfect vehicle to get onboard. One of their most mainstream movies, it still has enough of them in it for fans and followers of their work to still recognise their stamp on it. Beautifully shot, fiercely acted, wonderfully scripted and delightfully entertaining, "True Grit" is a True Movie. Go see it. Now.

UK release date: 11/02/11

Certificate: 15