Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Dreadfully Boring

Don't listen to the negative reviews

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The Warner Brothers Network struggled to reboot "The Lone Ranger" without success as a weekly series in this cable TV adaptation. "Child's Play 3"director Jack Bender and "Let The Devil Wear Black" scenarists Stacy Title and Jonathan Penner have taken lots of liberties with the original material. Not only have they changed the names of various protagonists and the antagonists, but also they have altered major plot incidents. The Texas setting remains intact, and Boston bred Luke Hartman (Chad Michael Murray of "House of Wax") arrives from the East to visit his brother, Harmon Hartman (Sebastian Spence of "Little Boy Blues"), who moonlights as a Texas Ranger. Notice that the hero's name has been changed from John Reid to Luke Hartman. When the regulators start raising hell with homeowners in the route of the railway, Harmon and his fellow Rangers saddle up for action. Naturally, Luke wants to accompany his big brother, but Harmon refuses to let him join them. Nevertheless, Luke rides after them despite his older brother's warnings. Harmon allows him to spend the night with them. The chief villain in The Lone Ranger origin story was Butch Cavendish, but here he is known as Kansas City Haas (Dylan Walsh of "Congo"), who seems friendly enough in the beginning. Instead of leading the Rangers into a cross-fire in a valley, double-crossing Kansas and his armed regulators massacre the Texas Rangers while they are encamped for the evening. Kansas and his gunmen are trying to run settlers off their property so they can sell it to the railroad. Kansas plugs both Hartmans, but Luke manages to survive the ordeal. After being tutored by Tonto (Nathaniel Arcand) and given a mask by Native American witch doctor Kulakinah ( Wesi Studi of "Heat"), Hartman makes his first appearance at night as the Masked Man and thwarts Kansas and his gunmen from running a black family off their property. Murray dons a black mask and straddles a white horse, but his outfit looks nothing like Clayton Moore. For the record, Hartman meets Tonto when he tries to defend Tonto' sister in town from a gang of horny gunslingers on his first day out west. Of course, this cannot compare with Clayton Moore's "Lone Ranger" movies and TV episodes, but it is a serious, straightforward narrative that occasionally incorporates some humor and sexuality. Meantime, the Indians don't want to help. The most interesting character again is a villain, and Dylan Walsh savors the role with enthusiasm. At one point, Tonto's sister Alope (Anita Brown of "A Guy Thing") sinks into a hot tub with him. The dialogue is sometimes profane but always memorable. The WB didn't slight this oater. The rough-hewn sets look sumptuous, and the production values are strong. The use of songs behind the violence isn't as effective. In this version, Luke is a natural born crack shot with a handgun. Keep in mind that the Lone Ranger is more of a teenager. He saves Tonto's life at one point. Not bad.

This is a very light, made for TV movie. Much better than the campy original TV show. But fans of the original TV show will obviously not enjoy this particular. movie.If you were born in the 1980s or above, you'll enjoy this up to date take on the Lone Ranger.Personally I quite liked the relationship shown between Lone Ranger and Tonto (it seemed much more even than the original show) in this movie. It could have been easily called "Tonto and the Lone Ranger".Of course it doesn't hurt that both the Lone Ranger and Tonto are extremely hot guys, so they're not exactly hard on the eyes. It's unfortunate that this show didn't get turned into a TV series, but if you want a light hearted movie that's going to be a-okay for the whole family, you can't go wrong with this movie.

I had wondered a long time why a new version of The Lone Ranger hadn't been done and it wasn't a huge surprise to learn that the WB was going to teenagerize the legend. The series was never picked up but left us with an updated version of the classic western films. Chad Michael Murray just minutes before his fame plays The Lone Ranger and his alter ego. Everyone seems to be genuinely upset about this rendition but I don't quite see the problems although they're are a few, no doubt about it.This interpretation revolves around the arrival of future Harvard Lawyer Luke Hartman who has made his way out to Dallas, Texas to visit his brother and his wife and young son before making his way to school to fulfill his father's dreams. When Luke arrives a week early, his brother is on his way out on a manhunt. It turns out his brother is a member of a volunteer law enforcement group, a ranger. They are after a group of men called The Regulators who has been burning homes and causing problems in order to make way for the railroad coming through Texas. Luke disobeys his brother's warnings and follows the rangers out to find these men. During the night the Regulators led by Kansas City Haas, a man thought to be on the side of The Rangers, attacks the rangers and shoots them all where they sleep including Luke. However Luke doesn't die and is saved by a young Apache Indian whom Luke had saved his sister earlier that day. The Apache Indian known as Tonto takes Luke back to the camp and nurses him back to health with the help of the tribe. Luke begs for Tonto's help to train him in warrior ways in order to get revenge on Kansas City Haas and The Regulators. Tonto refuses knowing that it is against Tribal Law to train a white man. However after speaking to a close friend within the Tribe Tonto realizes he must help Luke. Together they train. Tonto teaches him everything he knows about being a warrior, hand to hand combat, discipline, mind control, everything. They lean on each other and become the best of friends. Tonto encourages Luke to don a mask in order to represent his warrior side and Luke becomes a masked man bent on revenge. Tonto and Luke track down The Regulators and when it comes down to Luke having the opportunity to avenge his brother's death, Silver, his horse stops him. Luke learns more while they work to find The Regulators a second time. When they meet again Luke learns that anger does not justify murder and he upholds and the law and captures the killer also deciding to stay and defend Texas as The Lone Ranger.Some things must be considered when going into this film. First and foremost this is less of a retelling than creating the legend over again for youngsters who probably never heard of Clayton Moore. So the film is made specifically with them in mind and no one else. Set old time western action to modern day dance music, forget any remnants of historical accuracy whatsoever, and basically just touch on the old Lone Ranger. All the elements are here...Tonto, Silver, the Mask, the guns, hi ho silver, and jumping onto his back, but do away with the white hat, black mask (it's brown.) They really go back to the roots of where this character is coming from and you also have to remember that this was meant to be a pilot to a series so they are basically only setting things up for future plot developments, including the romance. Some things are left so open for that reason. The cast is actually quite excellent. The unknown (at the time) Chad Michael Murray fits in perfectly, not so much with the western scenery, but just with the character, he's definitely a teenage draw. Nathaniel Arcand plays Tonto and he is great. He DOES fit in with the western scene and is excellent as the teacher and semi-sidekick but more of a partner. One thing I was impressed with was the film is rich with Native American heritage. How true it is, might be a different story but still it has that element of culture that is so often not covered in films. Director Jack Bender who has done some great Television does his best but I think the writing lacked something. I think it would have gotten better as a series. Overall it was an enjoyable teen flick rendition of the classic character and I don't know why people give it such a hard rap. Check it out if you ever get to see it, it's a rare gem. 7/10

I grew up with "The Lone Ranger"! First, on radio then the early days of TV. Loved it first for the music then the story! I also saw the movie made several years ago that seems to be the origins of this movie. That movie didn't go too far! This one I like and hate! Why?Chad Michael Murray does a fine job in this role. This movie seems to be leading to a series which would be fine. Typical of WB, they seem to want to aim it at a young demographic and hence use an MTV approach to the background music [Rossini did a fine job with "The William Tell Overture] and that joggled me. Frankly the music pukes, in addition to being anachronistic and WB who runs a big music business probably shouldn't try promoting that in all its programming. The movie had good action, although the 'kung fu' seemed out of place. The actors were pretty good and convincing in their roles. The sites were beautiful to see; I really liked the locations. Introducing the Indian Maiden[Alope] as a love interest for Luke was refreshing; something that had not really been done with any of the previous 'lone rangers'. This 'pilot' has real potential and I hope that WB decides to continue the series. It would be refreshing but they've got to rethink the background music [nothing wrong with a traditional approach]! Love the movie; hate the soundtrack!