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.
 
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