Movie Review: Appaloosa

[SevenDeuceOffsuit]

Appaloosa

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/new_line_cinema/appaloosa/appaloosa_galleryposter.jpg

Who Is In It: Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons, Renee Zellweger
Run Time: 108 minutes

Blu-Ray or DVD: Blu-Ray

Plot/Synopsis: Two take-no-shit, scared-of-nothing gunhands are hired by a tiny New Mexico town to restore order after a rancher and his crew of undesirables have killed the previous lawmen and are generally creating chaos.

IMDB: When two gunmen, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, arrive in Appaloosa they find a small, dusty and lawless town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg. Bragg has not only taken supplies, horses, and women for his own, but also has left the city marshal and a deputy for dead. In Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary who raises the stakes by playing with emotions. It is now up to Cole and Hitch to stand against the actions of the renegade rancher, which have already taken their toll on the town.

What I Thought: I was thoroughly impressed with this movie. The dialogue was extremely well scripted, and full of dry and witty humor. The attention to detail to make this movie appear to be authentic and realistic 1880-something New Mexico was amazing. The two protagonists (Mortenson and Harris) are excellent at portraying their never-back-down roles, that is until a woman f*cks everything up (why do they always do that?).

Video: :As:Qc
- great sets, costumes, and scenery
- crisp picture, since it's a western there's not a whole lot of color

Audio: :Ks:Kd
- surround sound was awesome, especially in the gunfight and train scenes
- level sound; didn't have to turn the volume up and down during quiet/loud parts
- plenty of rich bass when appropriate

Story: :10c:Jc
- Not especially fast moving, but not tedious or slow
- Heroes designed to be tough as nails, but soft when a woman gets involved
- Voice-over narratives to explain the character's thoughts at the end were fairly obvious and should have been omitted, IMO

PMC Quick Hits: Gunfights, An 8-ga shotgun that is essentially its own character in the movie (it's in basically every scene), Whiskey and Beer, Fistfights, No nudity (sans a scene with a whore in translucent underwear), 1.25 hot chicks (Zellweger is kinda meh for me, so .75, and the whore gets a .5)

Overall: Excellent western. The acting was captivating and believable. As mentioned, the attention to detail to recreate the old west is what stood out for me. If you like westerns, you'll probably like this.

4 Swankys out of 5.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g257/Gadgets19/swankyrating.jpghttp://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g257/Gadgets19/swankyrating.jpghttp://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g257/Gadgets19/swankyrating.jpghttp://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g257/Gadgets19/swankyrating.jpg

How I watched it:
Beverage of choice: Glenlivet, a few rocks, water back
Player: Sharp Blu-Ray BD-HP21U
TV: 50" LG Plasma
Receiver: Sony STR-K7100
Speakers:
Front - Sony SS-MSP7000
Rear - Sony SS-SRP7000
Center - Sony SS-CNP900
Sub - Sony SA-WP780

[JCinPA]

A 8 gauge shotgun! :eek:

That's worth a rental right there, IMO!

Nice writeup, thanks!

JC

[Gadgets]

nice job! Now that I have seen one without the card rankings I'm thinking of dropping them in the future.

[tele_pathic]

7-2,

Excellent review, thanks for the write-up. As for Viggo M., gotta love 'em. If I was ghey, I'd be his bitch....

[Dr Lecterr]

It was just an OK movie IMO. It was pretty slow and didnt entertain me much.

[SevenDeuceOffsuit]

nice job! Now that I have seen one without the card rankings I'm thinking of dropping them in the future.

I knew I'd forget something. I copied and pasted your format, but the pictures didn't carry over. I remembered the movie image and the swankys, but not the cards. I'll edit to add them in.

[CRAW]

This is in my Netflix queue, and I can't wait to see it.

[dcms]

I thought it was alright, some good acting and a fair story but not one of the better of the more modern westerns I've seen. The one thing that baffled me throughout though was this: why was Renee Mooseweger cast as the love interest? She is one of the ugliest actresses around, I shat a better looking turd this morning. It makes the story less believable when hero guys fight over anal fistula looking women.

[SevenDeuceOffsuit]

Yeah I don't like her either. But I guess if you're as old as Ed Harris, you'd hit it.

[Magic Rat]

I didn't love it...really wanted to because those two are great actors. Viggio was good, but something about some of Harris' dialogue didn't ring true to me as things his character would say.

Zellwegger was terrible in it...and I don't usually hate her like most do, but she was badly miscast.

Open Range with the trio of Robert Duvall/Kevin Costner/Annette Bening is a similar style western that is far superior.

[SevenDeuceOffsuit]

It appears my movie reviewing skills are lacking. I'll leave it to the experts from now on.

[Oz]

It appears my movie reviewing skills are lacking. I'll leave it to the experts from now on.


I for one liked the movie - and give it 3.5 Swankys. I thought it was a tad slow in the dialog - but the whole story was good. It's a western - you know it going in. I liked your review - that's why I rented it - and I'm glad I did.

Keep adding if you have one to add.