billcallinderscott-2607

A lot of good actors obviously needed some extra cash because for the life of me I can see no other reason they appeared in this drivel. A script that is so bad as to be laughable and looked like it had been written by a computer that was badly programmed. And yet it's is the work of David Ayer who wrote the screenplay for Training Day!? So is this just a one off case of writer's block? Let's hope so.

Cliché after cliché and a set of characters that were so poor that any actor that appeared in this tosh will have to do something sensational to recover their reputations. Mind you considering the rubbish that's produced currently, appearing in this ridiculous movie may not be a problem.

So were there any redeeming aspects to this movie? Not really although the special effects were OK. The music made it seem like a series of music videos that were separated by a music score. So many disappointments and yet it's made $745.6 million at the box office. I think that says an awful lot about the standard of publicity than it does about the standard of this movie.

As already mentioned the influence of Sergio Leone is clear with the usual assorted mysterious characters. None more so than Madelaine, played by Eva Green. The mute "banker" for the ruthless gang Henry Delarue played excellently by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

There was even a moral backstory about good people being turned bad by big corporations who used Delarue to force people to sell land rich in "Black Gold", i.e. oil. Their need for an air of respectability meant their dealings with Delarue were kept secret and although they didn't want him to use bully-boy tactics and violence it was obvious that this was in order to maintain plausible deniability.

What made this film stand out, apart from a very decent revenge storyline, was the superb cinematography whose director of photography, Jens Schlosser, did a fantastic job aided by a large special effects team. He actually knows how to do night/low light scenes where you can actually see what's going on. I see so many movies today where anything could be on the screen. It's a case of the proverbial black cat, in a cellar, with the lights switched off. He should give classes on how to do it properly. As already mentioned by other reviewers the colours were superb and I agree the SFx team probably had some influence in everything being so vibrant. Overall a standout film with a bonkers ending but it's what you'd expect from a very good cowboy film. The heroes have to ride off into the sunset.