Appaloosa (2008)

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Renée Zellweger is a beautiful woman, so why she looks so ugly like this ? The character she plays is one of the main characters, so why it's written trivially like this ? Ed Harris is supposed to play a tough and rough lawman, so how come he has no muscle in his body, and looks half dead, like this ? Jeremy Irons plays a cowboy ?? Really ?! No American actors were available, at all ?? And everybody says that this is a great western ?! Where is such greatness ?? WHERE ??? The scene of arresting the criminal, while he's among his gang, should have been critical and thrilling, however what we saw was fast comedic sketch, and ideal lesson in cinematic crap. The criminal is back, thanks to his relationship with the president ?! What relationship ?! The script doesn't even try to elaborate or logicalize for the sake of respecting our minds ! The lead is a smart guy, who used to be ingenious Marshal in many cities, so how come he puts his girl / only point of weakness in the same place where he keeps the criminal jailed ?! Harris writes, and directs, while not one moment can be described as distinct or good. The bad thing about him as a writer is that he wants to go to a point, do a certain event, yet really doesn't know how. So nearly every step is replaced with a jump, the events happen without building up, and to heck with being convincing. It's said on the credits that it has editing, though there is none, all what it has is stupid execution, which doesn't give peculiarity for anything. The action sequences are dull. And the whole movie is shockingly tasteless.Just one scene satisfied me, where the 3 main characters gather on the night of getting the heroine back form her kidnappers. This is the sole moment where I felt things like directional sense, and meaningful acting.Appaloosa can be included in Guinness World Records as "The movie with the most preposterous everything", and in my list for "Top 10 movies called great for no apparent reason" !

This is an excellent movie. I liked that it was done on film instead of digital. It gives a different feel to the movie. I also liked that the filming was done as a vintage western would have been done. The movie unfolds at a pace that draws the viewer into the plot and is not rushed and cluttered with too much action. All the scenes advance the plot. There is no gratuitous violence, just what is needed to tell the story. The costuming is great, lots of attention was given to make everyone look authentic to 1882, including the Indians. The sets were like real places with small touches to make each set personal and accurate to the times. The weapons and gear for the horses were authentic and period as well. And I loved the train! The movie was very well cast, all the characters were convincing and real to me. When I saw the top 3 male names in the cast, I knew it was going to be good. And it didn't disappoint.

I cannot believe that so many good actors (Zellweger excepted) have put in so much effort in such hot and sweaty locations and come up with the most cliché-ridden "Western" I can remember. It took 30-minutes into the movie for me to realise that it was not a comedy and that it was actually meant to be taken seriously. Irons, Zellweger, Spall and Mortensen are the least convincing Western characters imaginable and for Ed Harris to put his name to it (as Director, screenplay writer and actor) is probably the greatest mistake(s) he's ever made. Sorry Ed, it don't get much worse than this. Never mind the worthless awards, this is rubbish of the first order. Still, locations and costumes were decent. Just a pity about everything else. The tag line was "Feelings get you killed" : whatever, beats watching the movie.

The cast is great and provided outstanding acting. Their characters are highly interesting. It's well worth watching once but the story-line becomes increasingly implausible as the movie unfolds.A small one-street one-horse town is having problems with Jeremy Irons, the rich cattle baron who thinks he owns the place and his men have no problems with shooting-up both the town and anybody they want at the drop of a hat.So, the town fathers hire Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen to bring law and order to the town.And along comes Renee Zellweger who arrives in town and needs a job, and she can play the piano and winds up with a job at the saloon.OK, so far a standard plot line.Here's where the spoilers start: Jeremy (the bad guy) also owns this elaborate and ornate saloon that no one-horse town in the middle of nowhere can support. But that's where Renee gets a job behind the piano.Jeremy murders a deputy marshal at his ranch. Ed and Viggo go out to arrest him. He's tried, convicted and sentenced to death.On his way by train to go to the place of execution, Jeremy's gang get's him released while the train is at a remote water stop, with Renee with them as a hostage.She'll be released when they're safely away. Well, O.K. But why can't the train just go forward until it's out of sight, they release Renee, ride away, and the train backs up to get her? After all, everyone knows that there are no horses in a freight car for them to pursue the bad guys and get Renee.Eventually, Ed and Viggo have the horses and supplies they need and finally have the bad guys in sight, along with a bunch of hostile Indians who are about to attack the bad guys for their horses and weapons.The Indians attack. One scene has Renee, in her underwear, kicking and screaming while slung over an Indians shoulder. However, for some miraculous reason, Renee and Jeremy survive. The rest of the bad guys were either dead or fled. (Maybe the Indians decided not to steal her because they didn't have a piano.) O.K. Jeremy is recaptured. The team arrives at the nearest town and Jeremy is placed in the local jail for safe keeping while they figure out what to do next. But Jeremy and the local sheriff are friends.To cut to the chase: Jeremy, the evil local sheriff and the sheriff's deputies have a shoot-out with Ed and Viggo. Everybody gets killed or wounded except Jeremy, who escapes out of town on a galloping horse.Later, back at the one-horse town, Ed gets a telegram that states President Chester A. Author has granted a pardon to Jeremy for murdering an officer of the law. Jeremy swaggers back to town as a free man.But what about his gang's kidnapping Renee to demand his release from the train? What about the shoot-out at the evil sheriff's town, where people were murdered? Why wasn't that sheriff brought to justice?Aren't they all crimes, too? I guess they didn't want all of that to interfere with the story-line and people just wouldn't notice or care.Anyway, by the end of the movie, bad guys never win.Again, I think the actors and the characters they portrayed are great. But, wow, there are also a bunch of "Huh?????? This doesn't make sense" moments to make this a higher rated movie.