g-psy-therapy
Despite the immense Cate Blanchett, the good Tommy Lee Jones and other actors, the story has nothing original and many characters are ridiculously stereotyped. Sad the tiny part given to Val Kilmer. It was a waste of acting power.
brian_clay
I know that Clint Howard is cast in each of brother Ronnie's films but I never knew he also had all those other relatives who write perfect 10 reviews. My only guess is that the reviewer who wrote that it was "...the best western ever made." has never seen any films made pre-2000. How an actual film lover/reviewer could rate this above:
High Noon,
Outlaw Josie Whales,
Fort Apache,
The Searchers (The real one),
True Grit,
Jeremiah Johnson,
Unforgiven,
Winchester 73,
They died with their boots on,
Magnificent Seven!!!
and on and on and......is beyond my comprehension.
As I said, not the worst, but COME ON MAN!!!
Paul Tremblay
Ron Howard probably directed one of his best movies with The Missing, but that's not saying much. Howard is a master at predictability as he rarely catches his viewers unaware at any level, be it the detailed moment (when Blanchett investigates the non-return of Brake, Emilio and the girls, you absolutely know what she will find and when) to the overall movie (had Jones survived I would have been the most surprised of viewers). Howard is an excellent technician but he couldn't blow any life in material like The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons. Beautiful Mind is interesting in that respect because the narrative does keep us on our toes and we keep wondering what is real and what is imagined, but once our curiosity is satisfied Howard keeps battering a now-useless suspense at us. In The Missing the opportunities kept building up and presenting themselves: the two extreme religious aspects (Maggie and her European Christianity as opposed to the Brujo and his native, earth-bound spirituality) which could potentially express the cultural and colonialist antagonism at play. In the middle was Jones, the former ranger playing native: the whole thing could explode into a rich debate where no one is right or wrong. Instead the first half of the movie ends to let the gunfights and battles start, seemingly unrelated to the overlaying conflicts displayed in the first hour. Maggie becomes a gun-totting brood defender and we only learn through the deleted scenes that Jones was no rancher but had left because he was a painter. In the same way in which Apollo 13 could not possibly end differently from the historical fact (the capsule made it back to Earth...) the same here is true: the family is re-united into a world where the ranchers survive and the natives don't. The only way natives could apparently express their grievances was through acts of sadistic barbarism, according to the narrative. Of course they lost...
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.
AD
