'The Bling Ring' & 'Lone Ranger' Reviews

The Bling Ring is Sophia Coppola's latest film which focuses on the real life escapades of a teenage group of  celebrity burglars in LA. Through out the film I kept wondering why? Why did Sophia make this movie, these are her people: privileged white girls. The story follows this vapid crew as they do copious amounts of drugs and rob the likes of Paris Hilton and Megan Fox.

No real comment is made on the group or their actions, the movie feels a lot like a reenactment or dramatization. Sophia presents the characters as shallow and invites us, I think, to laugh at them but never stretches any further. Never really brings home an actual thesis or calls the group to the carpet for their behavior. Nor does the movie attempt to justify their actions or show us in any way who these people are, how they think, or why they may have turned out this way.

The film seems to be Sophia's attempt at showing her peers in LA the dangers of the celebrity life they are all engaged in. But the message, what little there is of one, is something that is obvious and understood for everyone outside of LA and anyone living in LA under a certain income level. Five minutes in I get it, what else is there? But there is nothing else. Sophia removes herself so much from the material its difficult to figure out her point of view, if she in fact has one. The movie brings a potentially disturbing phenomenon to light but doesn't go further, you could save yourself the time and money and read the Vogue article which the movie is based on. The film doesn't develop anything it simply presents it.

The drug use throughout seems an attempt to justify their behavior but the actors never appear high in any way. The mounds of drugs their shoveling into their systems seem to have no effect. A scene where Emma Watson is free basing ends with her simply saying "Your ass looks great." It all seems to be presented for laughs and shock value and always rings false.

The performances were ok for what they were and only Emma Watson really went over the top with her valley girl voice and pseudo sexual attitude. Overall: all fat no meat.

Don't See It.

The Lone Ranger is a light hearted young adult summer adventure movie based on the Radio and TV shows of the same name. It feels like a ride, lots of color, lots of movement, and only barest semblance of a story. The cast has a surprising amount of heavy hitters which bring some coherence to a script that is relatively scattered. The biggest problem is the titular character the Lone Ranger played by Arnie Hammer who is way out of his depth and seems to have been cast simply for his chiseled jaw.

There are potentially lots of issues with the movies treatment and depiction of Native Americans. Johnny Depp's casting in general and his semi-racist portrayal in specific are disturbing if spared any moment for consideration. Why, why, why, why at this juncture are we casting whites in minority roles? If that kind of thing doesn't bother you or you can force yourself not to consider it and simply take the movie on strictly entertainment value you can enjoy the movie.

A plot with a lot of holes, excellent actors resurrecting a DOA script, and good summer action. Does contain offensive social content.

Rent It.