What's it about? After bringing a pirate-based theme park ride to cinematic life, director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp teamed up once again for the big screen adaptation of classic TV series The Lone Ranger. Armie Hammer takes on the titular ranger - otherwise known as John Reid - with Depp as Tonto. Together they set about righting wrongs in the old West, which in movie terms means lots of chases, visual gags, more chases and plenty of mindless fighting for good measure. Why was it doomed to fail? How many young, modern movie fans are likely to care one bit about a big screen adaptation of a property which began life as a radio play in the 1930s? It's a question someone at Disney should've asked before putting up the $200+ million budget, not to mention whether or not casting a white guy in the role of a Native American might be deemed a tad insensitive. Quentin Tarantino might have considered the first 45 minutes of The Lone Ranger to be "excellent" but critics and audiences were in general disagreement. A weird mix of prostitution and violence in a Disney film aimed at a younger crowd coupled with a weak script - not to mention the tendency for contemporary Westerns to fail - caused The Lone Ranger to plummet and crash at the box office, much like the train in the film's final act.
