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David McK (3540 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies

Sep 15, 2019 (Updated Feb 14, 2021)  
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
2013 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Western
6
6.0 (25 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
"Hi Ho Silver away!"

Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Carribean) take on the classic Western for Disney, with Johnny Depp's Tonto pretty much playing the same character as his Captain Jack Sparrow, and with Armie Hammer taking on the role of The Lone Ranger.

Set as an elderly Tonto telling the story to a child visitor in a fairground in 1930s San Fransisco, this takes a while to get going (2hour 20 running time!), with a large part of the story settign the scene and the background to how the Lone Ranger came to be who he is/was.

Indeed, apart from a slight refrain at the beginning the stirring William Tell overture doesn't even get used until near the end of the movie (probably for the best, as an overuse would dilute its impact).

I also have to say that this is probably one for the big screen: the sweeping majestic shots of the Wild West do kind of lose their impact on a smaller TV screen!
(2)   
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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies

Jul 25, 2019  
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
2013 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Western
7
6.0 (25 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Story: The Lone Ranger starts with Tonto (Depp) telling the story of how he met the Lone Ranger John Reid (Hammer) the district attorney of Texas, we see how Butch Cavendish (Fichtner) killed John only for Tonto to bring him back from the dead to get their vengeance on the outlaws.

The journey takes the two men across the wild west to expose the truth behind everything that has been going on between the outlaws and the native Americans.

 

Thoughts on The Lone Ranger

 

Characters – John Reid is a district attorney in Texas, living in the shadow of his brother, but this time he gets to go on an adventure with his brother only to be murdered and bought back to life by Tonto. He must work with Tonto to get the people behind his brother’s death. Tonto is the native American that shows John the way as his own past makes him the colourful character that does things in his own direction. Butch Cavendish is the villainous outlaw not afraid to kill anyone who gets in the way of what he desires.

Performances – Armie Hammer in this leading role is good through the film, he must play the straight-laced character and pulls this off. Johnny Depp is going on one of his stranger character missions again here and at times is fine, but at others gets annoying. William Fichtner as a villain is something we always want to see.

Story – The story follows the origin of The Lone Ranger and Tonto as they faced their first enemy together in the wild west. The story plays out nicely just how you would imagine any Disney related material to, as an unlikely hero is born, even if it does follow elements of the Pirates beginning. This does have an adventure across the west feel which is nice to see and the twists and turns do seem to be easy to see unfolding, with a villain that knows the danger the two heroes pose to him.

Action/Adventure/Western – The action sequences do come off feeling like the highlight of the movie, with an amazing opening train sequence. The adventure side of the film is written all over the idea of going across the wild west to stop the villainous characters. The western feel comes through strong too, while not the most serious we do see both sides of the law.

Settings – The settings take us all over the wild west fitting into nearly ever typical location we know about.

Special Effects – The effects are good too in the film while only being used to cover up certain moments of the film.


Scene of the Movie – Ladder trick.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is too long.

Final Thoughts – This is a lot of fun even if it is too long in places, the cast do a good job and this one will be a film that you can switch off and enjoy.

 

Overall: Enjoyable action adventure.
(1)   
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Jeremy King (346 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies

Oct 7, 2019  
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
2013 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Western
7
6.0 (25 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Ok i am going to say i really enjoyed this western. I thought it had the right amout of action in this western.
A great story from the point of view Tonto (Johnny Depp) on how him and John Reid, the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) met.

Now the down fault of this movie is that it was under the Disney Flag. If they held off till they had another studio (FOX) and put it out under that studio flag it would have done better. Just seem to violent for a disney movie and alot of adult hummor. Now if they ever plan to remake it again under Disney i would tie in Thunder Mountain and less blood.
(3)   
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019  
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
2013 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Western
7
6.0 (25 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
With much of the pre-release coverage of the film centered on the reportedly $250 million plus shooting budget, audiences can finally see the fruits of this labor as Disney brings “The Lone Ranger” to the big screen. The movie stars Johnny Depp as Tonto and tells a slightly updated tale of the masked ranger, yet stays refreshingly grounded in the traditions and history of the source material.

 

Armie Hammer stars as John Reid, a district attorney who returns to Texas to provide justice to a lawless land that is in the process of great expansion thanks to the pending completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. In the 1860s, the country is in a great state of change as the completion of the railroad will allow people to travel coast-to-coast across, something that was once an extremely long and dangerous journey to undertake.

 

The local railroad administrator plans to do a public hanging of notorious outlaw murder Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), as an example of how law and order has come to the wild frontier, a show to encourage Western expansion and install a sense of security in the local populace. The local Comanche tribes are told that as long as they continue to honor the established treaties they will be able to coexist in peace with the Western settlers.

 

Following a daring escape from the train that is carrying him to justice, Cavendish departs into the desert with his gang of outlaws. Not willing to let him escape justice once again, Reid’s brother Dan deputizes John, and leads the posse to bring Cavendish to justice. Now as anybody who’s followed any of the previous incarnations of the story knows, the posse is ambushed and all the Rangers are brutally murdered by Cavendish and is outlaws. Enter Tonto, who discovers John barely alive, and overseas his restoration to health. It is Tonto who convinces Reid to wear a mask as he is convinced that Cavendish had help and that it would be best for John and his brother’s family if the world believed John died with the other rangers to save them from any possible retribution

 

In a refreshing change of pace, Reid is not a swaggering fountain of machismo. He is a man who puts his faith in the law rather than in a six shooter and is actually hesitant to fire a weapon and use lethal forms of violence to dispense justice. This brings him at odds from time to time with Tonto who tries to walk the thin line between his people and his beliefs and the ever-changing modern world around him.

 

When the military began systematically retaliating against Tonto’s people for perceived raids against the townspeople, Reid and Tonto not only must deal with Cavendish and his gang of outlaws but must get to the bottom of a larger mystery that threatens to not only eradicate the Comanche people but to threaten the good citizens of the area. With his trusty and at times comical white horse, Silver, Reid and Tonto must learn to coexist with each other in a desperate race against time.

 

The film was an extremely enjoyable and fresh take on the characters that I really enjoyed. By giving the characters slightly more updated and relatable personas and traits yet retaining their core identities in history, Depp and Hammer made this a Western that was fun and cool and yet stayed true to the origins of the characters while making them more appealing to a modern audience. What really impressed me was Depp how he took what is often jokingly seen as a stereo typical Western sidekick and made him a very compelling yet diverse character. Yes, there is a lot of humor in the film but it is entertainingly at the expense of Reid, most often with Tonto getting some of the best lines in the film. I really appreciated the fact how it told a story without being overly politically correct or preaching, letting the characters and the action convey the message.

 

The action in the film is solid and the harrowing finale had people in the test screening cheering the action. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Gore Verbinski are to be commended for bringing a lively story that introduces the iconic characters to a new generation of fans. I hope that the film is able to draw fans and gives Disney’s a good return on its large investment as I would love to see Depp and Hammer back for future adventures. “The Lone Ranger” was the most pleasant surprise of the summer to date and the only summer film so far that I would pay to see again.

http://sknr.net/2013/07/03/the-lone-ranger/
(1)   
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TheDefunctDiva (304 KP) rated Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) in Movies

Oct 6, 2017  
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
1983 | Action, Drama
3
6.6 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Classic 80s cheesy action flick (0 more)
The plot, the dialogue, the suspension of disbelief one has to maintain while watching (0 more)
L is for Lethal
Contains spoilers, click to show
Lone Wolf McQuade (P. 2/9/08)

As my ex-husband and his co-workers once discussed, this 1983 Chuck Norris classic contains an inexhaustible list of “man movie” elements. I shall enumerate just a few of the highlights here (spoiler warning):

Turbo-charged truck that hasn’t been washed in 20 years…check.
Multiple cut-away scenes containing only foul language…check.
Good guy silhouetted on cliff…check.
Too-tight pants…check.
Too-hairy chest…check.
Good guy lives in filthy, ramshackle bachelor pad…check.
Good guy assigned a partner that he doesn’t want…check.
Feds interfering with good guy’s investigation…check.
Evil, maniacally laughing, midget villain in a wheelchair…check.
Bad guys attempting to kill good guy’s daughter…check.
Same daughter later gets abducted by bad guys…check.
Good guy has disproportionately hot girlfriend…check.
Same girlfriend wears nothing but good-guy’s shirt, post coital…check.
Good guy hanging off hood of moving vehicle…check.
Good guys outnumbered by bad guys in every fight scene…check.
Single, long-range gunshot or arrow from crossbow causing car explosion…check.
Bad guy using a contrived mechanism to kill good guy, instead of simply shooting him in the head…check.
Beer, beer, and more beer, which magically revitalizes the good guy…check.
Strategically placed blood…check.
Flaming barrels…check.
Women totally incapable of defending themselves…check.
Good guy and bad guy putting down their weapons and facing off in physical fight…check.
Hot girlfriend dying in good guy’s arms, while professing her guilt and undying love…check.
More flaming barrels…check.

I could go on and on.

Among many other cheesy elements in this movie, I especially enjoyed the moments of obvious symbolism. The opening shot contains a psychedelic-looking, lone wolf accompanied by nothing but whistling. Later, when the bad guys attempt to kill Lone Wolf McQuade, they first assassinate his pet wolf. Foreshadowing, anyone? Another blatant symbol appears when Captain Tyler lectures McQuade about the public image of a ranger. The Captain holds a ruler in his hand, presumably because McQuade doesn’t “measure up” to his expectations. Ha!

In the most entertaining scene of the movie, Lone Wolf has been buried alive in his truck by the bad guy. Beaten and broken, he opens a can of beer found on the front seat, pours it over his effusively sweaty self, takes a sip, and then finds the strength to go on. With his eyes closed, and his head thrown back, he alternately opens and clenches his jaw while emitting a prolonged man-grunt. He then steps dramatically on the accelerator of his super-charged vehicle and is able to drive out of his own grave.
 
With the ridiculous costuming, cliché dialogue, subpar acting, and utterly horrible score, this film would have worked far better as a comedy. If you plan to watch it, expect to be incredulous, and try to avoid staring directly at Chuck’s hairy chest.
(1)   
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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) in Movies

Nov 23, 2019  
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
2014 | Horror, Mystery
7
6.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Verdict: Slasher 101

Story: The Town That Dreaded Sundown starts when Jami (Timlin) and her boyfriend Corey (Clark) are attending the drive-in-movie-theatre showing the movie based on the real murders set in Texarkana 65-years-ago, moving to lover’s lane the killer known as The Phantom catches them, murdering Corey, leaving Jami with a message and the town is thrown back into fear again.
When the Phantom strikes again, he leaves Jami with a warning that he stop until she gives up her own secret, with the town bringing in the Texas Rangers Lone Wolf Morales (Anderson) to hunt down the before more people are murdered, is this the original killer returning or a copycat.

Thoughts on The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Characters – Jami breaks the mould of the final girl, she is a survivor of the first attack being left with a message of trying to find Mary. Jami starts looking into the history of the town going in search of what happened 65 years ago, needing to decide about her own future in the town or going off to college. Jami isn’t a teenager that is going to be running, she is almost like the messenger for the killer. Lillian is the grandmother of Jami, she has raised her after her parent’s death, she wants what is best for her even though she might know something about the past. Lone Wolf Morales is a Texas Ranger that has come to the town in search of the answers, he has taken complete control of the investigation and will listen to any story which might uncover the truth about what is happening. Nick is the former classmate of Jami’s he works in the achieves where he helps Jami learn about the history of the town becoming a new love interest for her.
Performances – Addison Timlin in the leading role makes for a great scream figure, while not just looking like a victim. Anthony Anderson does seem to bring a little bit of humour to the film, while the rest of the cast don’t put a foot wrong.
Story – The story here follows a town which suffered from a serial killer spree 65-years ago, a film which bought back the memories and now a new killer has arrived killing mindlessly through town. This story might follow elements of the traditional stalker killer, which for the most part is an easy watch, when it jumps out to the next level of being a meta sequel, while also taking the story in a new direction, we get a nice mix of the three, with the idea that this is based on an unsolved murder spree, a reality check on a film that is about those murders and a potential copycat or supernatural killer, we are kept guessing. The story however is filled with weaknesses because we did get hints of people that would have been involved and they just seem to drop the potential of us having suspects, while the killer reveal is also largely disappointing by the end. This story does make us feel like we are watching a more serious version of Scream with how the world is created around us.
Horror/Mystery – The horror is a blood soaked slasher style, we get plenty of rules being broken for that genre too, with Jami not being killed in the opening attack, we also get to see how the killer isn’t slow and is predatory at times, with the mystery being around who the killer could be and why they have targeted certain people through the film.
Settings – The film is set in a small town on the border of two states, this means we get the police arguing over who should lead the case, as well as being in a place with a history of a serial killer.
Special Effects – When it comes to the effects, we know we are going to get plenty of blood with the kills that aren’t as bloody as they could have been, but show the brutality of the kill.

Scene of the Movie – The aerial field shot.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The killer reveal is weak.
Final Thoughts – This is a slasher that is a joy to watch because it turns the rules of the genre on its head, even if the final reveal is the weak point of the film.

Overall: Slasher to Admire.
(4)   
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Rage 2 in Video Games

Jun 19, 2019  
Rage 2
Rage 2
2019 | Action
8
7.0 (5 Ratings)
Video Game Rating Watch
In 2010 Bethesda released RAGE. The game was the next step in the Id Shooters as it combined the combat the company was known for with a story, outdoor locales, customization, and vehicle combat and racing. As if that was not enough; the game featured a large Post-Apocalypse world, tons of enemies, and several side missions.

The game was so large that it took several discs to contain the game and I remember our review unit arriving extra early so we had time to load the large game so we could be ready to play when it went online.

Nine years later we finally get the sequel as RAGE 2 has arrived from Avalanche Studios. The game picks up 20 years after the first game as players take on the character of Walker; a first generation offspring from the original Ark survivors.

After a deadly attack by the evil General Cross and his army of Mutants; Walker takes on the role as the last of the Rangers and travels the Wastelands to find new Ranger tech, make allies, gather loot, and fight Bandits, Mutants, and other enemies that arise.

Walker has a nice arsenal of pistols, Shotguns, Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, Grenades, and his deadly Wingstick as well as a series of Nanotech powered abilities which can be improved and gained over time.

There are various towns for players to advance the main mission as well as gain side missions, trade, buy, and increase their vehicle and weapon abilities.

Players will need all this and more as the enemies are numerous and deadly. Just driving between two points on a mission can lead to roving bands and convoys attacking you; not to mention Road Blocks and other Bandit Dens that arise.

The game deftly combines first person combat and vehicle combat and offers some very fine graphics which really lead to the immersion. One issue I had is that some missions seem more like a back and forth between two points versus some of the more cohesive moments on other missions.

The NPC characters do not do as much as some may like as you will pretty much be a Lone Wolf but you will be able to chat with characters to advance the story and get side missions.

The game does require players to win a race in order to advance the story and it took many tries including some frustrating second place finishes before I was able to cross the Finish Line first ahead of the pack.

The game provides plenty of gameplay as I put in over 20 hours on it and there are still some areas I can wander to clean up but with DLC and new content coming; I am looking forward to seeing what is to come. I also look forward to fully loading out my vehicles and weapons as the three main weapons I have are amazing and I would love to see what the full loadout can do.

I was a bit disappointed over the lack of Multiplayer as it was included in the first game and I had hoped we would be able to get both vehicle and FPS combat this time out or at the least a Co-Op mode.

The music and sound effects are good although they can drop or fade now and then but this has become better with a recent patch.

RAGE 2 provided plenty of immersive entertainment and was a very entertaining and engaging game despite some frustrations along the way. The game clearly indicates more is coming to the story and I cannot wait to see what comes next.

http://sknr.net/2019/06/07/rage-2/