Open Range review

 Number 817 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2003 Revisionist Western 'Open Range,' directed, produced and starring Kevin Costner.

Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) and Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) are two cattlemen hired to drive a herd across the state of Montana. But they quickly get on the wrong side of the local town mayor Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon.)

This Western strongly reminded me of the great Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960's. Of course, I'm talking about Sergio Leone who dominated the genre with his "Dollars Trilogy." Costner employed the same fantastic cinematography that made those old Westerns so visually stunning to watch. I loved the sweeping visuals of the great American landscape. It really emphasises the immensity and isolation of living in such an expanse.

Unfortunately, Costner traded off great cinematography with a plodding narrative. The pacing was slower than it had any right to have been. Except for the ending, which we'll get to, much of the pivotal violence happens off-screen. For example, Baxter's men attack Spearman and Waite's two ranch-hands killing one and badly injuring the other. We knew this was coming, so there was no surprise reveal. But because we didn't see this violence, we don't get to see Baxter's true villainy - or, in this case, his hired gun Butler (Kim Coates) who led the attack. Either way, Gambon's presence as a villain was severely hurt.

In the build-up to the climatic sequence, we get lots of banter between the two leads delivered in Duvall's most gravelly and Costner's all-American tones. And this wasn't the most interesting to watch. Waite also purses a relationship with the doctor's sister Sue Barlow (Annette Benning) which I found a little unbelievable. An attractive older woman like Benning has managed to stay single for just long enough for the cowboy Costner to sweep her off her feet?

We plod along to the final gunfight between Spearmen, Waites, and Baxter, and his posse. By all accounts, this should have been the most exciting part of the film, but we spent so long getting here that I had almost lost interest, The super-powered guns and questionable physics did little to help things either.

To be honest, I've never been keen on Westerns. Sure, they look great on-screen, but cowboys has never been something that's interested me. Open Range did little to change that opinion.

Abre Los Ojos review

 Number 446 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Spanish science-fiction thriller 'Abre Los Ojos,' (Open your Eyes.)

Cesar (Eduardo Noreiga) is a young man who has it all: good looks, money and a loyal best friend called Pelayo (Feliz Martinez.) He also has the affection of the attractive young woman Sofia (Penelope Cruz.) This fuels the anger of Cesar's jealous ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri.) When a terrible accident leaves Cesar scarred and deformed, his life begins spiralling out of control. This leads to him uncovering a greater conspiracy.

Although science-fiction films are rotted in the real, their plots can lend themselves to the fantastical, and, at times, the unbelievable. To some extent, this would apply to Abre Los Ojos. At the end of the film all our questions are answered, but the answers did leave me raising my eyebrows. But let's backtrack a little. Cesar is an attractive playboy, but he is involved in a car crash that leaves his face deeply scarred. Forced to wear a mash, he quickly becomes a social outcast. The only thing that keeps him tethered to sanity is Sofia. But when Sofia vanishes with Nuria claiming to be her, Cesar begins to lose his mind. He tries to tell everybody the truth, but nobody believes him. All this is crosscut with him in a psychiatric institution telling his story to a shrink.

It's revealed that Cesar paid for his body to be cryogenically frozen with a cryonic company called Life Extension. Afterwards he kills himself. But Life Extension has the ability to preserve the mind in a virtual reality that is created from their client's own lives. However, this film was made in 1997. How advanced was virtual reality back then? Would it be capable of sustaining a whole virtual world? If this was the modern day, when VR headsets are a dime-a-dozen and the metaverse is looming overhead, I would find this easier to believe, but not the nineties.

Despite the spurious premise, this was a watchable film. The time-jumping narrative leaves plenty of clues to keep us interested, but it is never so mysterious that it's frustrating. There are questions to be answered in both the past and the present, and I enjoyed figuring them out at the same time as Cesar.

And Cesar is such a tragic character. You could argue that it can be difficult to feel sorry for a wealthy playboy, but he is sympathetic. He is a man who goes from everything to nothing. His jealous ex-lover crashes the car they're in, which is the accident that horrifically scars his face. He is forced to wear a mask turning him into a Frankinsteinean monster. Soon his personality becomes monstrous as he turns all his friends against him. But Noreiga played whim with just enough humanity to not make him a self-pitying mess. And Najwa Nimri was very good as his scorned ex-lover.

If there was something I would mark the film down for it would be the god-awful CGI in the during scene, but that is only a minor niggle. All in all, this was an enjoyable film. I would recommend opening your eyes and watching it.