![]() ![]() ![]() (And I haven't even mentioned the framing narrative, which features an impossibly wizened Tonto telling his story to a young boy at a carnival in 1933 San Francisco.) Yet there's a certain goofy grandeur to the movie's first half or so. Given that Reid is presumed by the world to be deceased, his new partner persuades him to don a mask as they continue their quest to bring Cavendish to justice. Luckily for him, he is revived by a legendary Spirit Horse (whom he will later repay with the decidedly pedestrian sobriquet "Silver") and a tribe-less and quite possibly deranged Comanche named Tonto (Johnny Depp). But things do not go according to plan, and Reid ends up-at least to all appearances-dead. Upon arrival, however, he is deputized as a Texas Ranger by his decidedly manlier brother (James Badge Dale) in order to help capture the notorious outlaw Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner). The story (by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, with an assist from Justin Haythe) is straightforward enough in its early contours: A mild-mannered district attorney named John Reid (Armie Hammer), returns home to the Lone Star state following his big-city education. But this is the era of the Big Cinematic Event, and if you don't want every single dollar of a $200-million-plus budget to be waved in your face-well, you may as well stay home and watch TV. Tucked away somewhere in its 149-minute running time, there is a clever, corny summer diversion lasting perhaps an hour and three-quarters. (It does, however, wreck more than its share of trains.) The film has plenty of weaknesses-an unevenness of tone, a surfeit of plot convolutions, some problematic political echoes-but its central flaw is that it is absurdly, punishingly overlong. But while it's not a good movie, neither is it quite the total train wreck implied by many reviews. ![]() The Lone Ranger is a profoundly unsubtle-and equally ill-advised-effort to recapture the improbable charm of Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Why Star Wars Keeps Telling the Same Stories Spencer Kornhaber ![]()
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