Rango

[mandmc10]

Didn't make it to Rango AGAIN today....Usual thing with trains when you need them- Engineering works!!! for the second day in a row, was prepared to drive, even checked car parks in west end.... didn't happen.... had to do something for my mother early in the morning which at the the end didn't work out as well!!! Unlucky!.... It's just not my weekend!!!!

[a_person]

awwww poor you mandmc - i was up until 5am writing my essay which still remains incomplete so I couldn't go as I was asleep at 10:30am! Hoping to go Thrusday though.

@Tilly - did baby come too? I want to see you!!!

[tilly]

I didn't take Isabel but in a few years yes.
Shame you weren't there but I know the essay is far more important.

[kevinknapman]

You have to admire any director that instead of directing the fourth installment in a successful franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) that you helped create and is likely to be a sure-fire box office hit, decides to direct an odd and exact homage to Spaghetti Westerns featuring lizards and rodents. Quite possibly commiting career suicide in the process. How big an audience is there for this kind of tribute and what kind of audience is actually likely to go and see it. Apart from me obviously as I thought this was quite brilliant.

Just from the first 10 minutes you know you are seeing something pretty unique. A lizard suffering an existential crisis, a bit of bastardised Shakespeare, a wind-up plastic goldfish called Mr Tibbs, talking road-kill and a Hunter S Thompson cameo (a nod to Johnny Depp perhaps but a hint of the films location which you don't find out until late on in the film). This packs more into that 10 minutes than most films manage in their entirety. Once the film gets underway proper it's a glorious and quite intricate love-letter to the work of Sergio Leone and the Franco Nero character Django (the name Rango being an obvious nod to that).

Beautifully animated (apart from most of the characters who are, in the best Spaghetti Western tradition, a vast gallery of grotesques) and often very funny, this left me with a smile on my face for most of the film. The attention to detail was sublime and the variety of visual and verbal gags meant it was endlessly inventive. The voice work was perfect, with Johnny Depp giving his best performance in ages, and some nice support from Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone. I loved the 'cameo' from one of the most notable Spaghetti Western actors ever, here voiced by Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West (The film awards in the back of the golf cart were a nice touch). The Hans Zimmer score was note perfect too. It was a little too long and sagged a bit in the middle but no film is perfect.

I loved this but clearly a lot of people won't. Indeed it's hard to see how big an audience this is likely to have in the long run outside of movie buffs.

[valda]

I loved it too, but I'm odd like that. I thought it was so funny but you really had to be p*ying attention to catch a lot of it and the references. I wouldn't know JD's voice without seeing his face, but, I recognized Ray, although I didn't know he was in it, and Ned Beatty, who's character looked like him. I definately want to see it again and will grab it from Paramount when the DVD comes out.

My main complaint is the fact that it is clearly not a kids film, there were loads of children there, well under 8 who were clearly bored witless. How in the hell would they understand the first 10 mins, let alone the film references in this?

Market this at students, slackers and film buffs please

I managed to meet another 2 FMUKers, so Hi Tilly, thanks for making me actually go in, and hello to Hottips (is that the right name?) Great to meet you both. Sorry you didn't enjoy it Tilly

8/10

[prettyxcool]

Thanks kk, great review. Exactly how I felt, but could not say it so eloquently! I was indeed captivated by this film!

[tilly]

Maybe it was the tiredness.

[funthing29]

I think this is a very niche film and shouldn't really be aimed at kids. I don't see why an animated film must be targeted for children - South Park did fine despite being a carton!

Agree with kk! Very articulate review!

I enjoyed this but now realise that a lot of the references went over my head as I am not a Western film fan at all.

[prettyxcool]

Maybe it was the tiredness.

The topic is quite heavy! As valda says you really have to p*y attention. I think I was in the mood.

[Beate]

We were the first at the Odeon and started a queue, even after having stopped at the Vue West End first. Valda told me they must have got fed up after a while with people asking so stuck a note on the front door telling folks where to go for Rango. We were insanely early (something like 9.20am) and watched people in the foyer blowing up cacti. I immediately knew I wanted one!

At around 9.45am they started letting people in, bevvy first with wheelchair husband and grandkids, followed by us. There was a guest list so I could have saved myself the hassle of printing off all the info I had. Bevvy for some reason wasn't even on the guest list but got just waved through so it was completely hassle-free.

We went downstairs where they had two lizards, two snakes and a cute little chamaleon which one could admire and stroke. They also had the Mexican owl mariachi band there which was funny. No water or goody bags today though, and when we entered screening room 2 we were told to fill up from the front to which I responded that I don't like sitting at the front and would come back once they had filled it - made to leave the room but the usher immeditately gave in and so we took seats in the middle section, right next to two seats with "Reserved" signs on. Of course no one sat there then at all for the entire film. There were plenty of seats still left over, and it started a little late as people were still streaming in. There were people handing out balloon animals and for some reason we ended up with two balloony things as OH regressed into child mode.

The film wasn't my cup of tea at all, I am afraid. I have never seen an animated Reptile Western before and couldn't understand how this is marketed as a kid's film as I thought it was way over their heads. The animals weren't cute at all, in fact they were downright ugly, although Rango had a certain charm. It was kind of dark-looking, and also a bit boring in places. I never go to the loo in films but I did in this one. And I had a little snooze in the middle. It picked up towards the end but all in all I can only stretch to a 5.5/10 I am afraid, with an additional 0.5 for the cactus.

When we left the screening, all the blown-up cacti were given out (and some flat ones for blowing up at home), and I eagerly grabbed one. OH then said he felt like a right prat sitting on the tube with a plastic cactus on his lap. Seeing as this comes from a man who quite happily sat through the entire film with a huge balloon hat on his head (don't worry, we were in the last row), I thought this a rather silly comment.

6/10