Notice the last three westerns have flopped?

Malpasowildlifer

Malpasowildlifer

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To my knowledge, the last three westerns (Jonah Hex, Cowboys and Aliens and The Lone Ranger) were flops.

Perhaps the Lone Ranger will pick-up some steam and do better (for the sake of westerns.)

Personally, I thought The Lone Ranger would do really well merely because of Depp and he could carry it, but I guess not. I should go see it.

I never saw Jonah Hex and have no interest too. I've seen parts of Cowboy's and Aliens. Best parts were the sets, guns and the horses (some cool paints) but that was about it.

Not by any means is the general population craving westerns in their pursuit of more Kardashians, Honey Boo Boo, rap music and other forms of hedonism, but perhaps Hollywood is mistaken that westerns will do well with sci-fi, over the tops stunts, dark themes, etc.
 
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I saw parts of Cowboys and Aliens, on a DVD. Played a few minutes, ran it forward, tried again. Hoping for something interesting. Gave up. Gave it back to the guy that loaned it.

I saw the previews of Jonah Hex. Based on them I had absolutely no interest in seeing the movie.

As for Tonto and his Masked Sidekick, according to IMDB, >Native American warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice<.

Over to the cowboy wire, there's a saying I see often. "Any western beats no western at all". It seems that the people that make movies have the same idea.

"It's got cowboys and horses. People that like westerns will go see it. It don't matter that it has no plot, wooden acting, and is, in general, a piece of rotten dog poop. It's a western. It'll make money."

I disagree.
 
Westerns of the old type portrayed different values and people. Today's Hollywood has forgotten what made the great ones that way.

And very few of today's actors can handle such roles well. Johnny Depp is no Charlton Heston, James Stewart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, or Audie Murphy. Nor is Brad Pitt.

Russell Crowe can play a dastardly villain, but he's not the hero type.

The trouble is, Hollywood and the liberals have set out to debunk the legend of decent heroes and I think they are incapable of portraying or writing Western heroes any longer.They just do sendups and camp spinoffs of older themes.
 
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It seems to me that every movie these days is about explosions, special effects and more explosions. And special effects.

"Bright and shiny" has replaced anything resembling plot development. Following plot development requires concentration, which is sadly lacking in today's world.

You see, folks get dis..... ooh look SQUIRREL!
 
WardenRoss said:
I dissagree and liked him in "Gladiator" and Master and Commander".


Some later cowboy flicks, Appaloosa and 310 to Yuma were pretty good to me.

Haven't see the new Lone Ranger. Tonto's headgear looks like a turnoff.
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Okay, you're right, esp. about, "Gladiator", although I think Heston in his heyday would have been better.

But I meant, in a Western role. I should have clarified that.
 
I liked "Cowboys and Aliens" but then I like cartoons. I wouldn't have paid money to see it, but it was ok on TV. I don't have much desire to see "The Lone Ranger" but will probably watch it sooner or later on TV. I've never heard of the other one mentioned.

The more I watch AMC, and Turner classics, the more I like movies. My wife had never seen "High Noon" until a week or so ago. She was spellbound. The same with "Open Range." She said growing up they never watched westerns. Her father said "The real west wasn't like that", which may be true, but still she missed a lot of good movies. It's fun to watch old movies with her. She's missed so many of them, not just westerns.
 
Malpasowildlifer said:
To my knowledge, the last three westerns (Jonah Hex, Cowboys and Aliens and The Lone Ranger) were flops.

Perhaps the Lone Ranger will pick-up some steam and do better (for the sake of westerns.)

Personally, I thought The Lone Ranger would do really well merely because of Depp and he could carry it, but I guess not. I should go see it.

I never saw Jonah Hex and have no interest too. I've seen parts of Cowboy's and Aliens. Best parts were the sets, guns and the horses (some cool paints) but that was about it.

Not by any means is the general population craving westerns in their pursuit of more Kardashians, Honey Boo Boo, rap music and other forms of hedonism, but perhaps Hollywood is mistaken that westerns will do well with sci-fi, over the tops stunts, dark themes, etc.
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If Hollyweird wants to make a western...then they should actually try making a western.
Instead, we end up with odd movies, which serve as an excuse to insert the formulaic wizz-bang production.
A great western would require a plot, character development & good acting skills. That is hard.

Maybe most Hollywood folks can't pay attention long....without robots fighting?
 
It's too bad that Jim Carrey has swore off movies with gun violence.:( He would make a totally awesome western star. His name would be synonymous with the great western genre movies just like; Wayne, Eastwood, Rogers, Stewart, Duvall and Hackman. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

Any western movie with Carrey's name associated with it would be a guaranteed classic and a box office block buster. :)

If you've seen his parity on gun control you already know he does Charlton Heston better than Charlton Heston does Charlton Heston!:confused: He is a true master at his craft.:)

As a Canadian, he fully grasps the American spirit of the wild west and his dramatic acting stills are beyond reproach. Just look at his body of work. It is both timeless and priceless.


Now please excuse me while I go throw up.:D:D:D
 
The Lone Ranger is the first movie I've got up and left from in twenty years.

Don't waste your money or (if you stay for the whole thing) two and a half hours of your life.

I bought into the hype - never a good thing.

GF
 
Agreed on Hollywood having no sense of a true Western.

I'm pondering over the last Western besides the remake of True Grit that actually had character development and didn't fall completely into stereotypical cowboy character roles... Unforgiven? Hrm... it's like Shane meets Fist Full of Dollars and the hero who has tried to leave his life of crime falls right back into it... but does he really change at the end?

Cowboys and Aliens was enjoyable if you like science fiction but it was no western. It's about as deep as Snakes on a Plane.

**Edit**
Kozmic, you nearly had me going there for a minute. Need more coffee!! Hilarious!!
 
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Boys, I agree with Blujax. Explosions, explosions, and more explosions. Never have I seen such.

Median age here? I don't know but probably somewhere above "middle age" I would guess. We don't need explosions!! How many of us go to the range and shoot exploding targets? I don't. Anway, the last movie I saw Gabby Hayes was singing "Come back to Sorento." Hollywood does not get my entertainment dollar.

I am afraid that Cowboy Action Shooting (Sass) is on life support. Younger generation grew up with sci-fi, computer games, etc. Do they have any western computer games? Our early TV days were filled, almost completely with "horse operas" We are a product of our upbringing, or lack thereof.

It was fun while it lasted.
 
Actually there are a couple of western-style shooters out there in Video Game World. At least one of them was popular enough for a zombie remake, so there may be hope after all. ;)
 
The previews I saw didn't excite me. Johnny Depp is a limited talent, so he tries to make his characters as close as possible to each other. I saw the previews and thought "Pirates of the Caribbean on Horses". That campy character worked in those movies because there wasn't a history of movies and TV shows that formed opinions.

Not so with The Lone Ranger, it's well known material.

The new True Grit was a decent movie and successful. It was certainly a much darker movie than the original. That seems to be what audiences want these days, but I like movies with clear cut good guys, who win in the end.

No doubt all those "smartest kid in the room" types (who aren't here) will say I'm simplistic, but I watch movies for entertainment, not deeper meaning.

I'll stick with the old westerns, thank you. Made back in the days when actors could act, and not just react to special effects.
 
What few good actors that are left are getting old for the parts. Clint walker is 86 years old, james garner 85 and hugh obrian is 88! Sam elliot, (where is he?), tom selleck, (he is happy to play the mature role in blue bloods), eastwood is pretty old, I dont know any young good likely types out there but I really dont watch them wherever they are (if there is any). Its a new generation. They seem to be comedians that only know how to talk dirty, the small sensitive type, dirty wise alec rappers, muscel head athletes or whatever. Even if we had some potentials, who would direct them? We all are getting old and the younger generation isnt interested in paying to watching what we liked.
 
NCTexan said:
I thought the 2010 True Grit was a great movie that just so happened to be a "Western".
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There you go. If it isn't a good movie, it's going to do badly. The "last three westerns" the OP mentioned flopped because they were bad movies. Two of them arguably weren't even real westerns. (If it's got aliens, it's science fiction, even if some cowboys are running around.)
 
Biginge said:
Boys, I agree with Blujax. Explosions, explosions, and more explosions. Never have I seen such.

Median age here? I don't know but probably somewhere above "middle age" I would guess. We don't need explosions!! How many of us go to the range and shoot exploding targets? I don't. Anway, the last movie I saw Gabby Hayes was singing "Come back to Sorento." Hollywood does not get my entertainment dollar.

I am afraid that Cowboy Action Shooting (Sass) is on life support. Younger generation grew up with sci-fi, computer games, etc. Do they have any western computer games? Our early TV days were filled, almost completely with "horse operas" We are a product of our upbringing, or lack thereof.

It was fun while it lasted.
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About your first statement agreeing with Blujax. Antonio Banderes was the right guy for Zorro. But the acrobatics and super elaborate anti climatic ending was too much. I bring this up because I watched the great Tyrone Power 1940 version of Zorro again. It's old school Hollywood hokeyness, but the ending was a pure skill oriented sword fight between Power and an arrogant cocky Basil Rathbone. Movie makers don't think we have attention spans to appreciate that any more.
 
yeti said:
If Hollyweird wants to make a western...then they should actually try making a western.
Instead, we end up with odd movies, which serve as an excuse to insert the formulaic wizz-bang production.
A great western would require a plot, character development & good acting skills. That is hard.

Maybe most Hollywood folks can't pay attention long....without robots fighting?
Click to expand...

I agree two of the movies mentioned IMHO were sci-fi with western tones, and the third was comedy with western tones. The others movies mentioned by others True Grit, 3:10 to Yuma seemed to be remake or older films, same slightly different plot, different new actors. They try make a name for their self on older movies that worked I guess they are to many generations from the cowboy days.
Seems like those who wright scripts now a days can't wright good westerns like the old ones so they try to copy them, most for me don't work. They know sci-fi so should stick to it and just bring back the good old time proven westerns and the time proven actors.
 
These were brain dead flops on delivery.

Cowboys and Aliens, seriously? What idiot thinks that's a good concept to put 100 million in?

My Cat could have written a better script than Jonah Hex.

The Lone Ranger, one look at Depp's costume and I dismissed it as Pirates of the Caribbean on a horse.

Make a real Western, put some actual real men in it and people will come.
 
A rather recent western that only about eight people saw, was that Brad Pitt Jesse James movie. EVERYONE in this movie were excellent. My B-I-L hated it. Too sloooow. I loved it. Pitt was so close to the historical record of Jesse James. And the creepy kid who played Bob Ford should give his big brother Ben Affleck acting lessons. This film had expansive outdoor scenes, yet seemed cautrophobic because that's how Jesse James felt with his paranoia. This is a love it or hate it movie that didn't help the western genre any.
 
Okay, let the flaming begin: the hero types played by Wayne, Scott, Cooper, Murphy, et al., in the classic westerns were idealized figures who always triumphed over evil in the end--and real life in the Old West wasn't often like that. Nor were the historical figures we idolize to this day. Wyatt Earp was a gambler and paid protector of prostitutes as well as a lawman. Billy the Kid was a psychopath (and not lefthanded, by the way). Jesse James was an icy killer.

Most movie portrayals of these guys have been about as realistic as the awful way "Bonnie And Clyde" prettied up and glamorized a creepy little sociopath and his airhead girlfriend.

Gary Cooper's character in "High Noon" was wonderfully written and acted. A few others were as well. But "Unforgiven" and the remake of "True Grit" were probably closer to real life in that time than ninety per cent of earlier westerns. "Lonesome Dove" was brilliant.

I enjoy watching the old classic stuff, but I'm also a lover of history and a student of human nature. I like complex characters because I am one, and know that nearly everyone is.

Your mileage, etc. I'll go take shelter now...
 
Iggy said:
Don't need a script, just a big butt.
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Where is Sir Mixalot when you really need him?:D:D:D

kozmic said:
It's too bad that Jim Carrey has swore off movies with gun violence.:( He would make a totally awesome western star. His name would be synonymous with the great western genre movies just like; Wayne, Eastwood, Rogers, Stewart, Duvall and Hackman. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!

Any western movie with Carrey's name associated with it would be a guaranteed classic and a box office block buster. :)

If you've seen his parity on gun control you already know he does Charlton Heston better than Charlton Heston does Charlton Heston!:confused: He is a true master at his craft.:)

As a Canadian, he fully grasps the American spirit of the wild west and his dramatic acting stills are beyond reproach. Just look at his body of work. It is both timeless and priceless.


Now please excuse me while I go throw up.:D:D:D
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One of the funniest posts I've read in a long time!

Have you noticed that moral movies usually do pretty well? I don't think that Hollywood knows why! Folks down there (maybe with the exception of Sip) think morals and character are outmoded concepts. Sad state of affairs.

Did anyone notice that Despicable Me 2 blew out everything else this past weekend? I think folks were going to the movies to be entertained, not to be preached to.....
 
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