Saturday, August 16, 2003

August 16, 2003: Judy and I both thought OPEN RANGE was terrific. Of course I'm a sucker for
westerns, and there are all too few of them these days. That may be
changing, as we saw the previews for THE MISSING (Boy, does Tommy Lee Jones
look rugged) and for THE ALAMO. Both of them look darned good, but I'm
afraid to get my hopes too high for THE ALAMO. But I digress. Some
reviewers have criticized OPEN RANGE for bad dialogue, but I didn't seen a
bad line in it. Some awkwardness maybe in the love scenes, but that was
about it. And Costner isn't afraid to take his time setting things up and
letting the story play out at its own pace without juicing it up. I like
movies that move that way if they don't bore me, and this one didn't bore me
at all. Robert Duvall was, as usual, really good, and Michael Jeter has the
Gabby Hayes part down pat. Too bad he died soon after the movie was
finished.