BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

johnheav This movie features Ron Howard at the apex of his vision. From casting to cinematography to script...this is a treasure, with overtones of Unforgiven and The Searchers. You will not soon forget this gem of a movie.

SanteeFats Very nice, also fairly realistic in my opinion too. Apache renegades are murdering men, old and older women and kidnapping young girls/women to sell down in Mexico. Of course they screw up and capture the wrong girl when they take Lilly. Tommy Lee Jones just happens to show up right before the attacks. He is a white man who has lived extensively with the Chiricahua Apache, even marrying an Apache woman. His daughter, now a healer, hates him for having left his white family many years ago. She must turn to him though when the renegades kill her lover and another hand and take Lilly. By the way the hanging scene of the lover wrapped in raw cowhide was actually used by the Apache. As it dries out rawhide contracts leading to a slow, agonizing death. Fortuitous happen stance occurs when they run across a Chirichua known to Tommy, while on the trail of the kidnappers. They join forces to go after the bad guys. Trying to free the captives, Kayitah, the one TL knows gets killed because Lilly screams out. The leader, a supposed witch, rides off to get the buyers and returns to find the camp has been attacked again by TL, the mom, the youngest daughter and the dead Apache's son. This time successfully. They have rescued the girls and get away, for a time. Going to ground in a rocky tor. The witch and his few remaining thugs of course locate them and in the attack all is resolved as several are killed, TL tackles the witch man and takes him over a cliff to both their deaths as it turns out. In the end the mom and both daughters are saved, the Apache son is reunited with his bride who was a taken one, and I guess they all live happily ever after (?).

unitythroughterror There's a snake-wielding sorcerer (Eric Schweig) who kidnaps a group of girls to sell into prostitution in Mexico. A determined mother (Cate Blanchett) and her estranged, honorary Native father (Tommy Lee Jones) set off hot in pursuit. The supernatural edge to this film raises the tension - in a very effective and creepy way. The fact that it is seamlessly woven in with the factual events (female kidnapping and sexual slavery, the ethics and politics of Native Americans and Americans unfairly co-existing, etc.) is very cool. The shots are well put together and the film as a whole becomes more emotionally involving by the climax. The acting is both superb and then a bit hammy here and there. The villain is very well portrayed by Schweig, but some of the dialogue is pretty ridiculous ("what does this squashed penis want?"). The images and effects, plus the occasional gore (this film is mostly bloodless in its depictions of violence - albeit a few gory moments) is well put together and disturbing. The film has a pseudo-epic feel, which I felt took away from the tension of it being a rather small story as a whole. It came out in 2003, which seemed like the year "violent, epic movies" were quite a trend (take, for example, Cold Mountain and Snow Falling on Cedars). If Ron Howard hadn't been going for the "epic" approach I think the film would have benefited a bit more. That being said, all in all, it's enjoyable, but it's no masterpiece. I was invested, however, and that's saying a lot as I am a pretty jaded moviegoer.

vicvonfate I'm shocked that Ron Howard could put together such a poorly paced, grim and dark waste of time. At times, this movie was even incoherent. (Ex: The need arises to run from the bad guys and out of nowhere we see shooting and mass confusion for the viewer. Later, we learn that it's just two old pals of Tommy Lee's character that happen to show up out of nowhere.) The quick camera cuts and poor story telling made the few action sequences hard to follow. The mystic avenue touched on at times in this movie was asinine and even silly. It seemed so tacked on and unnecessary. This was truly a mess of a movie and it looked like Ron Howard just shot this thing on the fly. It is brutal just for sake of being brutal. The tedious set up proves that the bad guys are truly despicable yet the climax and resolution is so very unsatisfying. This is truly Ron Howard's and Tommy Lee Jones' worst effort of their fabulous careers.