mesaxi

I saw a clip from this online and tracked it down because it looked like fun. After accidentally watching Open Range first, I was a little hesitant when I realized it was a miniseries. I didn't know it would be quite so epic.

The story follows a couple of former Texas Rangers and their group as they drive a herd of cattle to Montana. The story is surprisingly faithful to the time for something that aired on Network Television in 1989. I was surprised that they didn't pull punches with a lot of the content. In fact, the Network Television part kept it from getting too in your face and gritty. There's blood, but not gore. There's sexuality, but not sex. The west was brutal, the Indians were not peaceful, and one poor decision meant your life. Sure there's some cheese to it, but I can appreciate some cheese.

The cast was very well selected, my only minor gripes would be with Anjelica Huston and Frederic Forrest. They both did a good enough job, but I don't think they were well suited to their roles. I was actually surprised that Glenne Headly worked so well, she was the one in the cast I was a bit skeptical of. But Duvall and Jones were perfect.

The only reason I gave the series a 9 instead of a 10 is because the last episode got a little schmaltzy. I think they were trying to fill up some time and they did it by aggrandizing Gus and Woodrow's characters. It was a bit much. Other than that it was a near perfect series. I loved it.

I watched this because I was curious what Kevin Costner could do with a bad guy role in an over-the-top action movie. He was alright, still a bit wooden. I think he could have done more with better writing, but ultimately Kurt Russell carried the movie. He just can't help but do. And Courtney Cox did fine as well, always a pleasure to look at.

The movie itself is a very bombastic, fast paced, and poorly developed. Things just sort of happen, and rock songs from the period are played loud and often so they could sell a soundtrack. Nothing feels well explained.

5 may be a little generous but what the hell, it made me nostalgic for the period I grew up in. Not a great way but hey.

Boyle has made a single objectively good movie in his long career, and it's Trainspotting. Ever since then people have kissed his feet even though he's made bad movie after bad movie after bad movie.

I'll start with the iPhone gimmick, which resulted in a few very poorly done 180 degree shots and maybe some of the nightvision sequences that never actually fit what was happening in the movie. All of the stock footage and random edits were like something a college art student would do, unaware of just how pretentious they're coming off. Boyle has been around long enough to know better. I'm also sick to death of these filmmakers who keep coming up with "creepy masks" to put in their movie, or in the case pretty much just the trailer, because were just there and unexplained and randomly cut to at totally inappropriate times. There was a comically bad moment where he ADR'd a line of dialogue over a guy who was center frame and VERY CLEARLY not saying anything. There's also no real context or explanation for anything. The island is quarantined, if you go to the island you're abandoned....so WHY are there soldiers on the island at all? Ralph Fiennes is living off on his own....why? How? Where's his backstory? Why does he not just kill the big "alpha" zombie instead of repeatedly tranquilizing it and walking away?

Beyond Boyle, the writing is also just god awful. The entire premise of the movie is asinine, like the rest of the world is just going to write off the UK as an exclusion zone filled with diseased rage zombies for decades instead of simply clearing the island out entirely. The pregnant zombie scene was comically stupid.

The ending, with "Jimmy" or whatever, was the absolute kicker. Just when you think the movie can't get stupider a bunch of albinos in track suits jump out of the woods and start doing obnoxious kung-fu wirework to fight the zombies. It was like it suddenly morphed into a really bad John Woo movie or something.

I'm not just suggesting that you don't watch this movie, I'm suggesting you don't watch ANY Danny Boyle movies going forward. The dude sucks, that's all there is to it.