The Lone Ranger
Aug. 7th, 2013 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloIf you're my age you'll remember watching the Lone Ranger on TV on Saturday afternoons. If you're any younger you won't. He was a cross between Roy Rogers and Superman - and one of a bunch of silly, campy, sexless, older-brotherly, cowboy heroes designed to appeal to prepubescent boys. He came, he went, he wasn't greatly missed.
Some silly, campy, kids entertainment franchises have never gone out of the public eye. Batman has always been around in print and has kept showing up on TV and in the movies. He doesn't have to be revived, just restyled, because he has never been away. But the Lone Ranger just stopped dead circa 1960. You want to relaunch him now, you have to use jump leads. Only us whiskery old grand-dads remember him as a living force and not necessarily with any great fondness. If you're putting a lot of money into him now, be warned; you're effectively starting from scratch.
And that's why the movie slumped. It's got nothing to do with the critics.
PS. I quite like Johnny Depp, but he can't ensure profits just by turning up. I don't believe any movie star can these days.
Some silly, campy, kids entertainment franchises have never gone out of the public eye. Batman has always been around in print and has kept showing up on TV and in the movies. He doesn't have to be revived, just restyled, because he has never been away. But the Lone Ranger just stopped dead circa 1960. You want to relaunch him now, you have to use jump leads. Only us whiskery old grand-dads remember him as a living force and not necessarily with any great fondness. If you're putting a lot of money into him now, be warned; you're effectively starting from scratch.
And that's why the movie slumped. It's got nothing to do with the critics.
PS. I quite like Johnny Depp, but he can't ensure profits just by turning up. I don't believe any movie star can these days.
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no subject
Date: 2013-08-07 02:45 pm (UTC)It's the 6-year-old kids 'putting on a show' for their parents, and its just embarrassing to see a grown man do it again, and again, and again.
Plus the insensitivity of him playing a Native American, spoofing one, we should say, is just mind-blowing. I saw half the trailer and wanted to gag. Awful, awful taste. If I was Native American I'd want to burn this movie to the ground for it's protrayal of my people, by this jack-in-the-box idiot.
Sigh. I think now Edward Scissorhands was the high point.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-07 05:10 pm (UTC)He'd done good work in the past. For a while he showed excellent judgement in his choice of roles. Scissorhands isn't a film I like very much but his performance is inforgettable. There have been straight roles too. Donnie Brasco for instance- and the version of Hunter Thompson he played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And I have a weak spot for Jack Sparrow- because I adore pirates...