As a boy, I grew up listening to the old Lone Ranger radio series on tape because my dad grew up listening to the real deal on the radio. The Lone Ranger was my dad's favourite hero, so I ended up loving the character by default. How does this latest incarnation, as told by Johnny Depp , Armie Hammer and Gore Verbinski hold up? Stick with me. Native American warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice.  This movie isn't as bad as everyone made it out to be, but it is an overblown wannabe epic when it should have been a simple western tale of justice and revenge. The Lone Ranger isn't the kind of story you turn into a big budget Hollywood blockbuster . It's a straight-ahead tale of a masked man, his trusted sidekick Tonto and the evil Butch Cavendish. All of those elements are here, and the movie does have a solid first hour and a decent last act, but the rest is a bloated mess of shifting t...

Basement contributor Matt Bellamy has taken it upon himself to watch and review at least one horror movie a day for the month of October . . . because he's awesome that way! Tonight, Bellamy learns that before he dies, he sees the ring.  Yeah, not that original. Sue me. Like many other acclaimed director's before him, Gore Verbinski (' Pirates of the Caribbean ', ' Rango ', ' The Lone Ranger ') made his big splash in the horror genre, a great creative outlet to hone your skills and work on your own cinematic voice! Now, unlike many other famous director's who also started out in that genre back in the day, Verbinski chose to go the remake route instead of carving out something original which can be very tricky unless executed with the utmost skill. Very happy to say that the American remake of ' The Ring ' is a huge success and one of the very best modern h...

In the world of cinema, genres tend to become popular in waves.  One will see a belly laugh of romantic comedies for a couple of years, then it'll change over to caped flurry of superhero movies, then possibly flow into a beastly feast of zombie movies. And eventually, westerns come back around for popularity.  With movies like " The Lone Ranger " and " Django Unchained " kicking things off, we can expect several more six shooter specials to hit theatres.  Once such entry is " Dead in Tombstone " starring Mickey Rourke as none other than Satan. Roel Reine is directing this movie from a script by Shane Kuhn and Brendan Cowles, while Mike Elliott is the producer. The synopsis I've read seems interesting... kinda mixes in my love of horror with my love of westerns: " Guerrero Hernandez, is the leader of the Blackwater Gang of outlaws. But after freeing his half-brother, Red, from prison, Guerrer's plan to loot the mining town ...