The Lone Ranger

In spite of the dismal reviews of the remake of The Lone Ranger,I actually enjoyed it better than  what most of the reviewers said. Directed by Gore Verbinski, Lone Ranger — based on the 1930s radio show and 1950s television series — posted a five-day opening of $48.9 million domestically, an abysmal number considering the film’s $250 million production budget and a worldwide marketing spend in the neighborhood of $175 million, the norm these days for many summer event pics.

The movie starring newcomer Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as Tonto is a combination of flip flopping around trying to be serious and comical at the same time.

The story is told in flashback by an ancient Tonto  (Johnny Depp) to a young boy in 1933 in a western museum display at a carnival. The older Tonto telling the story of him and the Lone Ranger in younger days was very reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man and I thought the film could have been better served without this part and if it was a little shorter than its’ two hours and twenty minutes. The story starts out  with the same premise as the original with eight texas rangers out after outlaw Butch Cavendish only to be ambushed by his gang with the one ranger surviving who is found by Tonto and gives him the mask.

I thought Armie Hammer was a combination of being naieve,too straight laced and silly more like a Dudley Doright character than the original Lone Ranger. Johnny Depp as Tonto in white face make-up with black stripes and a stuffed crow on his head which he keeps feeding is more comical and smarter offering funny quips and one liners at appropriate times. Johnny displays some of his Captain Jack mannerisms from his Pirates of the Carribbean movies which are pleasant to see.

Wiliam Fichner is perfect as Butch Cavendish with his oddly scarred face, fang like gold tooth, scraggly hair and colorful villainous ways. I liked him better than the Lone Ranger and Tonto. He seems to be exactly like we’d imagine someone like him back then.

Helena Bonham Carter is the madam of an adult entertainment parlor is cool as the straight talking one ivory legged proprietor who uses her leg to hide a gun that shoots from the thigh and turns into a gun out of the heel of her shoe.

There is a really great train chase with lots of cars uncoupling and crashing into each other while the original Lone Ranger theme plays (The William Tell Overture.) At the end the Lone Ranger on his faithful white horse Silver says  the  famous  line ‘Hi Yo Silver Away” as Tonto says  sarcastically, “Don’t ever say that again.”

As I mentioned above the film could have been better had they left out the old Tonto telling the story and limited it to a more serious story and shorter movie which is one reason it is probably doing so poorly. Check out the trailer below as it is better than the whole movie.

The Lone Ranger (2013) – IMDb