Intorduction Task- The Lone Ranger

To make this movie it cost $250 million which is normal to make a movie but it is a bad sign when Disney was thinking about pulling out of the film. ‘The Lone Ranger’ stars Johnny Depp and because he is a huge Hollywood actor they would be paying him top dollar to make this movie but he took a 20% pay cut in order to make this film happen. Maybe this is because Johnny knew about the show and he liked it when he was a child and wanted to see it succeed. He said ‘Oh sure [I knew ‘The Lone Ranger’]. But I identified with Tonto. And when I would play with friends, I would always play the Indian, never the cowboy.’

Also another reason why this film flopped at the box office is because it was released the same time as ‘Man of Steel’ in America which means there will be less of an audience for this film, this would result in less money being made by the film. Also more people would go and see ‘Man of Steel’ because they had more advertisement for the film, such as trailers, billboards, even on television shows where the presenter would draw attention to ‘Man of Steel’. This will result in more people going to see a film that they actually know about.

This film is also a Western movie; the fan base for western movie is very small so there wouldn’t be a huge audience for this film anyway. The western movie fans might not like Johnny Depp and therefore will not go and see the movie reducing the audience further. Johnny Depp fans may have gone and seen this film mainly because he was in it and they didn’t like it so they told their friends and the word spread that the film wasn’t good so less people went to see it.

The film came under a lot of abuse from the moment it was released, the Telegraph one of the biggest newspapers in England stated:

‘Some films are created awful, some achieve awfulness, and some have awful thrust upon them. The Lone Ranger falls cleaning into the third category: it has arrived from America a pre-ordained flop, trailing critical roasting and a disastrous opening weekend behind it. The film cost $250 million to make and is expected to make a $150 million loss: hi ho silver away, indeed.’

The critics also stated that the film had too much technical wizardry, too many digital effects, too many action scenes with little story and no links to the original story lines of the radio and TV series from the 50’s and 60’s.

It was also stated that the film was the front runner to future amusements parks and follow up films, coming off the back of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Did they really think that they could just slap on that fact that is was made by the same people who made the successful Pirates of the Caribbean series for advisement and branding and think that The Lone Ranger would do as well? That the same fans of these brilliant films will just flock to the cinema and before they realise that the film was terrible the investors would make their money back. By doing this the fans of Pirates of the Caribbean, myself included, thought that this film would be a comedy and Johnny would make the movie amazing like he did in Pirates of the Caribbean. The companies involved advertised it all wrong because The Lone Ranger was nothing like the brilliant Pirates but was just another western movie, with over exaggerated action sequences to mask the dull story line much like the sheriff who masked himself to protect his dull life back home.

But did the critics jump on the film too quickly? As ‘Mirror’ stated ‘The, film, which opened in the UK this week, has already been slammed by reviewers around the world, who, smelling blood, have gleefully gone in for the kill’ this is saying that the critics have joined forces to tire down this film before it even is released a week. Johnny Depp says ‘I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the film’. Were the critics just following the trend of bad comments?

Introduction task- Tonight You're Mine

I am going to write about my favourite film of this summer. I found this quite hard because I watch a whole load of films and like almost all of them but the one I thought was the greatest I have watched this summer was ‘Tonight You’re Mine’ also known as ‘You Instead’. I enjoyed it because it was set in ‘T in the park’ festival which means the people there were real and their reactions to the goings on were just as real. The main characters are singers who were supposed to be performing there, but their plans get a bit ruined when some crazy man who works at the festival chains the leading man and women together with handcuffs. This is amusing to me because how would you cope being chained to a complete stranger who doesn’t like you already, they don’t like each other’s music and attitudes and they even don’t like each other’s partners. Their bands try and help them get the handcuffs off or get the keys off the man but they fail first of all. The woman has to perform when they are still handcuffed and the leading man doesn’t like her music so he changes it into something he does like and he completely takes over her keyboard and then they combined both songs together which is awesome because it is amusing how he destroys her performance and does it in a cocky way, the song he chooses is also good so it makes it more funny. After a while the girl joins in, and they start having funny jumping around and getting the audience involved. This was effective because you, as the audience can see how a ‘real’ audience would be if they were watching a ‘real’ band, and how they would respond. It also creates a little wanting, in your mind, to go to the festival yourself. To join in with the buzz and seeing you favourite band play on the big stage, sleeping rough with your friends and jumping to the music.

Another thing I liked about the film is that it was filmed within 4 days so it actually feels like you are at the festival with them and the bustling crowds, so when it is late and they go to the tent which is like a night club and they dance and then go to the funfair and go on the rides you as an audience feel involved.  In this film they also show the trailers and the artist behind the stages and it made the audience feel important and even like ‘VIP’. I also really like the actors in it Luke Treadaway, Mathew Baynton and Natalia Tena and I believe that if you like the people in the movie you as an audience will enjoy the film a whole lot more because you feel like you know them through their earlier acting in other movies and you know that they are good and will make the movie good also, it’s like when you see big names like Tom Hanks. I also love that the leading character’s relationship changes, you can see it going on and it is heart warming and relatable and as a teenage girl you enjoy watching a romance unfold before you. When the leading girl finds out that the leading man knew about his band mate having the key for a while and she runs away from him it makes your heart stop because you are rooting for their relationship so when it is his turn to perform he calls to her while on stage and he get his audience to call her name and you find yourself joining in and then they have the epic kiss scene at the end and it is an amazing way to end the film. End on a high.