Appaloosa

Porbably one of the worst westerns I have ever seen. So bad that I feel resentful for having spent two hours of my life watching it. Terrible writing, poor directing - a totally implausible script and, to top it off, a laughably bad performance by Renee Zellweger. To be fair to her, though, no actress should ever be asked to deliver such absolutely trite lines as the writers packed into this script.

Anything with Ed Harris automatically gets a boost in ranking. The perfect fit for this role.

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A true western classic movie, great dialogue, great story building, and when the action kicks off its satisfying. Worth buy.

I like this movie very much, but I was very disappointed to see, after I bought it, that the movie is not in the orginal 2.4:1 aspect ratio as it is on the blu-ray. Instead, its blown up with the edges cut off so your not really seeing the entire frame, and it looks terrible. I was fooled into thinking the movie was 2.4:1 because the trailer shows it like that.

It’s a fascinating world that Mr. Harris has created. A time when the West was wild and unforgiving and was inhabited by a few mythic men not afraid to kill or be killed for what they believed was right. John Ford would be proud,

Don’t expect brainless action and violence from this film and you may just allow yourself to like it. It’s a slow-cooking rumination on justice and honor, while I must admit that the love triangle stuff runs pretty close to being fluff. The acting performances are good. The photography is beautiful. The story is engaging, but it is really the dialogue that makes the film.

Plenty of Negative stuff up here to choose from, I’m going to address some of them; -“it’s Slow, Boring, Lacks Action, etc. Well not every Western needs to be filmed & cut like an MTV Video folks. These people I suppose would Also say Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven”had the same failings? Not much shooting or fighting, more Drama set in the old west (never mind it was one of the highest praised films ever) -one of my favorites was “Ed Harris doesn’t seem to “Connect” with the other cast members” … Uhmm, his role is that of a hard lawman who doesn’t get close to anyone, He’s not supposed to break into song or grin from ear to ear in this role. -The actors all do excellent jobs with their parts, and I frankly was Very Impressed with Harris’s Directing given the more somber, thoughtful and dramatic demands of the film. -If a “Good Western” for you is something you leave playing in the background while you fix dinner in the kitchen? This is not your movie, you need to Watch, Listen and pay attention. If you skip some or sleep thru part of it, don’t expect it to make sense when you tune back in. -Lastly, in concert with my last comment, one person complained of the film not making sense most particularly as the “Bad Guy” suddenly became the “Good Guy” then they shot him anyway “for no apparent reason”… Personally I knew why anyway, but even if you missed the why yourself, Viggo does a voice over as he rides off into the sunset that SAYS WHY he shot the Bad/Good Guy… who was never really a “Good” guy but a very bad guy who beat the court case and came back and PLAYED NICE to win over the simple minded town folk who could be easily fooled into thinking he was really good and allow him to get rid of the Marshall and his Deputy. I guess it wasn’t Only the town folk that were so easily fooled??

I tried really hard to like this movie, but Jeremy Irons and Viggo Mortensen turned out to be the only entertaining thing about it. I don't think they could have chosen a worse actress for the love interest, Renee Zellweger was just awful, absolutely no chemistry. Overall, the movie failed to make an impression and was a dull use of 2 hours.

When that train leaves town after depositing (the supposed plot point) Renee Zellweger, it takes with it any hope that the movie will be worth watching. Five minutes or so after Zellweger's appearance, I found it all a bit too painful to watch, stopped the movie, and dragged the movie icon to the trash. Really, the only winner here is Kenny Chesney.