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Freddy V.S. Jason out does Open Range!!! What is wrong with this society of ours. How sick is it to keep running and veiwing these two guys? I say but the steel claws and hockey mask away for good!!!

How very right you are, Poppajoe!

Then again, it is summer. Most movies during this season are aimed squarely at teenagers or families. The soundtrack to FREDDY VS. JASON features most of the nu-metal and rap-rock sounds that the kids today love. With MTV pushing the film and this chance to see two screen baddies fight each other, it was really no surprise that this film would emerge victorious. After all, if OPEN RANGE is that good, it is probably better suited to a December release.

One of my customers is a huge Kevin Costner fan. She came in the other night and said she saw OPEN RANGE and didn't like it. To those of you who have it or have seen it, is it good?

This is my personal opinion - As a Kevin fan, a lover of western films, and 10th in line to see “Open Range” opening day in Los Angeles…

I loved Kevin's “Dances With Wolves” - however I was somewhat disappointed in “Open Range”. The one thing I must say I enjoyed was the cinematography - the mountain vistas and wide-open scenery – incredibly beautiful mountains and lush valleys used as backdrops in this film.

I know Kevin has a love for the old west but I simply could not buy his role as “Charley Waite” in this film. I know both rottentomatoes.com & Ebert/Roper gave good ratings but in my opinion this film is a “5” on a “1–to–10” scale.

To me, Kevin seemingly walked through his lines – at times I thought he might be reading from q-cards. It was though, as an actor, he wasn't able to transform his personality and became this old cowboy – maybe it was because he was juggling too many other balls - director, main actor, producer, and maybe even key-grip.

The film lacked continuity from scene-to-scene – doing a “fade to black” many times – almost as though one chapter in the script was complete and someone turned to the next chapter. It was intolerably “l-o-n-g” during the middle 60% of the film. The first and last 20-minutes were fast paced, interesting, and really pulled you in - but the minutes in between made you look at your watch.

Duvall was much better in getting into his role but his script bothered me. It had way too many cliché’ speeches and pontifications - if one is to believe the time is 1888 in an old one-horse town out in the middle of nowhere. Some of the script are words one might hear by bellowing politicians in the halls of Congress - not in a dirty old saloon in 1888 with guns drawn.

FWIW - I really believed Clint Eastwood was an old cowboy in “Unforgiven”, and Tom Selleck was an aging cowboy in “Monte Walsh” & “Crosscreek Trail”, and I can easily believed Sam Elliot was a real cowboy in “Quick & Dead” (not the Sharon Stone version) – but there is no way I could believe Kevin Costner became “Charley Waite” in “Open Range”. Sorry Kevin....


[This message has been edited by Alysa (edited August 19, 2003).]