Excess of Opinions

I like westerns; I like Korean movies; I like movies set in the 1930s; I like movies with hot guys in them. Really, for the first half, there was nothing not to love about this film. Our three protagonists are all interesting characters (and did I mention the hotness?), and there’s a fast, punchy, tongue-in-cheek Guy Ritchie style happening as we meet all the characters and set up our central conflict. So far, so good.

Then the shooting starts. Please, don’t think I have problems with violence or gunplay in movies – I really, really don’t. I enjoyed the first shoot-out of this movie immensely. The second was good, too, but longer. The third was less entertaining, but even longer. Eventually, the time between gun battles (you know, the time when normally the plot furthers) telescoped down to 2-3 minutes, while the battles themselves bloated. Towards the end, or rather what I hoped was the end, there was a protracted gun battle on horseback. You’d think that would be pretty exciting, with the BANG BANG BANG and the horses and the running. I fell asleep after about 5 minutes of that. When I woke up, I found that 10 minutes had passed, and the horseback gun battle was still happening.

This movie is about 2 hours long, but it feels like 5. It’s really a goddamn shame, because this could have been terrific. Instead, it’s a deafening slog that barrels past the limits of patience and obliterates the joy and fun of the first section.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I once spent a full 10 hours watching this movie on cable, leapfrogging to another showing whenever one finished. “uno mas?”

SHIT YEAH! i didn’t even know i liked westerns. Ben Foster is a complete genius – god, i hope he isn’t a scientologist.

requires _extreme_ patience from the viewer – i couldn’t recommend it for most, frankly, and i don’t think it will work on the small screen.
a very quiet, powerful bit of character-studying that has stuck with me. genius, intense music, cinematography and acting.

Ed Harris directed, acted, and co-wrote the screenplay – he needs to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. wooden, awkward dialog, TERRIBLE cinematography (shot like a backlot TV movie) with incongruous, repetitive music. Viggo Mortensen is like a fresh peach blossom at the top of a small turd. seriously, Viggo is a joy to watch, and he did so much with so little. Renee Zellweger did nothing to flesh out her one dimensional role, which i’m going to blame on Director Ed. Jeremy Irons is incongruous and ineffectual here, which is a goddamn shame. this whole movie was a waste of time and talent that didn’t even try hard enough to be truly shitty.