Daily Archives: July 8, 2013
If Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall Traded Characters in The Shining (1980)
If Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall traded characters in The Shining (1980), things would have turned out a little differently don’t you think?
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
I went into The Lone Ranger without the greatest of expectations. The film’s trailers made it appear like it was going to be outrageously exaggerated and therefore hard to enjoy. But, at the same time, I knew that the film was created by the team that made the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so it had to be good for something. Also, it’s a Johnny Depp movie. When was the last time that Depp disappointed?
The film is about a very old Native American named Tonto (Johnny Depp) who tells the story of his encounter with a man named John Reid (Armie Hammer) and how that man eventually became The Lone Ranger.
The movie is directed by Gore Verbinski and the rest of the notable cast includes William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, and Ruth Wilson.
The film was not as exaggerated as I anticipated. The parts in the movie that were unrealistic were done tastefully and intentionally. Instead of those scenes being hard to enjoy, they usually were pretty comical. That was a welcomed surprise.
Depp was delightful, as per usual. His character had more hysterical one-liners than all of Bruce Willis’ action movies combined. Depp stole the show, as he normally does. The film almost should have been called Tonto instead of The Lone Ranger. Tonto is just another piece to the puzzle of insanely awesome characters that Depp has portrayed.
Hammer was okay, but at times his character felt more like the sidekick. He did what he could for his role, but he was no match to Depp’s Tonto.
Wilson was nothing special at all. She was a poor choice for a female lead. She seemed like a cheap version of Michelle Monaghan without the talent.
The rest of the cast had cameo-like appearances with the exception of Fichtner and Wilkinson, who were both excellent.
Overall, The Lone Ranger was a little long and drawn-out at times, but also fun to watch. Depp made the film worthwhile. If you enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), then you will likely get a kick out of The Lone Ranger.
I rate this movie a 7.5 on scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
Happy Birthday to Kevin Bacon
Happy Birthday to Kevin Bacon! He celebrates his 55th year in this world today.
When I think of Kevin Bacon, the first thing that comes to mind is the game “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” This guy has acted alongside so many of the greats in so many excellent films that they named a game after him.
So how do you play “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” you ask? Well, great question, thanks for asking. The object of the game is to link any given actor to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps or less. The less steps the better. For example I’ll use Angelica Huston as the other actor because she shares birthdays with Kevin Bacon, except today she turns 62. Now let’s try to link Huston with Bacon in the least amount of steps. Huston was in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with Bill Murray, that’s the first step; Murray was in Wild Things (1998) with Bacon, and that’s the second and last step. There you go. I successfully linked Angelica Huston to Kevin Bacon in 2 steps. Obviously the only thing better than 2 steps is 1 step. The only way that you could link the two actors together in 1 step is to find a movie that they were both in together. That example was pretty easy. Sometimes the game can get pretty intricate and difficult.
I used to play a variation of “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” The version that I would play was to link any 2 random actors together, rather than always Kevin Bacon and 1 other.
Not everyone can play those games. You almost have to have a real movie obsession to be any good at them.
You know than an actor is pretty awesome when they name a game like that after him.
Click on the links below to read my Kevin Bacon movie reviews:
brockingmovies 