Dick De Jong
December 24, 2013
HDTV Solutions

The Lone Ranger is a runaway train wreck of a movie and watching it, I envied those soldiers (pictured below) who had the sense to jump off before this Johnny Depp locomotive derailed and hurtled the hapless audience out of their seats.

For all of its trumpeted fast-paced action scenes, the Lone Ranger is a lumbering two and a half hours long. You know how Blu-ray releases often offer an extended Director's cut of a film. Well, with this Gore Verbinski opus, I was hoping beyond hope that we might see a trimmed, more restrained, version.

I'm a fan of Johnny Depp - have been since his What's Eating Gilbert Grape youth - and I respect his willingness to experiment, but the Lone Ranger would have been leaner and more focused without the aged Tonto opening and closing sequences.

And while I'm grousing, what's with the women's roles? Can they be more than prostitutes and wives?

I know that Helena Bonham Carter had an actual firearm for a leg, but Ruth Wilson is wasted as the prairie wife of Dan Reid, the Lone Ranger's murdered brother. Have the writers seen the BBC series where Wilson as the deliciously wicked Alice holds her own against the indomitable Luther? Give this woman a more substantial role.

I could go on about the lack of chemistry between the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) and Tonto, but to be more magnanimous, let's talk scenery - and not the type that the bird-crowned Tonto chews up. The film pays homage to the John Ford classics with stunning widescreen vistas of starkly majestic mesas, which are breathtaking on the high definition Blu-ray.

And the adrenaline fueled action sequences do provide a necessary jolt to the system.

The Bonus Features on the Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack include:

• Blooper Reel
• Deleted Scene
• Riding The Rails Of The Lone Ranger
• Armies's Western Road Trip
• Becoming A Cowboy

Studio: Disney Studios

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner

Length: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Rated: PG-13

Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Audio:
English:
  DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Spanish:
  5.1 Dolby Digital
French:
  5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles:
English SDH, Spanish and French