Chris Sullivan finds this week's cinematic releases a little thin on the ground, so instead avails himself of a DVD of Rango and is delighted that he did. Read Chris's review in Popcorn Diaries...
Apart from the brilliant The Skin I Live In and Weekender, both of which I’ve covered in this blog before, there was little worth writing about in cinemas last weekend so I reached for the DVD.
And Rango exceeded my every expectation, in fact it knocked my socks off. I was so impressed, I watched it twice. From the outside, I’d say it was a ‘computer animated feature’ but it surpassed any ‘computer animated feature’ I’ve seen.
It’s the trippy, surreal tale of a pet chameleon (Johnny Depp better than he ever has been) who lives in a terrarium with a plastic fish and a toy doll until he’s accidentally stranded in the Nevada Desert. Directed by Gore ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ Verbinski, it’s more like the 2D bastard child of David Lynch, Sergio Leone and Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Rango ends up in drought ridden 21st-century Wild West town of Dirt which is populated by a mad-looking bunch of anthropomorphic desert creatures voiced by the likes of Harry Dean Stanton and Bill Nighy.
'Part homage, part parody, utterly splendid and totally triumphant'
Rango (who wears the same Hawaiian shirt as Hunter S Thompson in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas) flukily defeats the town bully (Ray Winstone) and is hired as sheriff as the film itself goes off into stratospheric unconvention.
The hapless Rango uncovers a conspiracy deftly borrowed from Polanski’s Chinatown and perpetrated by a greedy loathsome tortoise mayor (voiced by Ned Beatty), faces a moral crisis and returns as the Lizard With No Name: a chameleon with a gift for blending in but is uncertain of his own identity.
Full of movie cross referencing, Rango meets the Spirit of the West (Timothy Olyphant) a Clint Eastwood lookalike and asks him: "Is this heaven?" "
If this was heaven kid,” replies ghost with poncho. “We'd all be eating Pop-Tarts with Kim Novak."
Hilarious, inventive, morally intact and bloody clever, it is downright unique. It’s certainly not your typical kid’s film.
Part homage, part parody, utterly splendid and totally triumphant.
Want more
- More film news at redbull.com
- Read Chris Sullivan's previous Popcorn Diaries
- Visit the official Rango site
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