This Week at the Movies

“The Lone Ranger” is a strange reimagining of the tale of gunslinger John Reid (played here by Armie Hammer) and his faithful sidekick Tonto (Johnny Depp), but it’s not nearly as bad as you may have been led to think.

If anything, Gore Verbinski’s film feels like one without a target audience. The picture was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who also made the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and this film has stolen the star of those films – Depp. 

Or, one might assume that this new “Ranger” film is aiming to draw in an audience that grew up on the western, either on the radio, television or at the movies.

But Verbinski’s film has not particularly been made to satisfy either of the above. That is, I don’t recall any old Lone Ranger films in which a villain tears out the heart of one of his victims and eats it. Nor do I recall desert bunnies with fangs. Don’t ask.

But while Verbinski’s “Ranger” pays homage to virtually every other western under the sun – from John Ford to Sergio Leone – it’s truly in an unusual category of its own.

This is not a bad thing. Depp’s Tonto is sort of the lead, while John Reid – aka the Lone Ranger – is more of a well-intentioned doofus who only later becomes a hero. In fact, other than Reid and his brother’s family, a majority of the film’s white characters are one shade or another of sinister, while the picture’s Native Americans are seen in a significantly positive light.

“The Lone Ranger” is a bit too dark for young kids, a bit too strange for those who are looking for a standard western and a bit too long, period.

But it’s not the catastrophe that some critics have proclaimed it to be. And it’s certainly more interesting – if not always successful in its sudden changes of mood and tone – than most of the other blockbusters so far this summer.

“The Way, Way Back” is a charmer. The picture, which was a favorite at Sundance, follows most of the conventions of the coming of age tale, but does so expertly.

Duncan (Liam James) is a painfully shy kid who is traveling with his mother (Toni Collette) and her jerky new boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell, cast against type) to a summer beach house.

Upon arrival, Duncan feels cast aside once Trent’s neighbor pals, who include Amanda Peet and a scene stealing Allison Janney as a boozy mother of two, show up.

Duncan stumbles upon a nearby waterpark, which is managed by Owen (Sam Rockwell), a talkative screwball with a Peter Pan complex, and Caitlyn (Maya Rudolph), whom Owen consistently fails to woo.

There are no big surprises here. Life lessons are learned. Duncan learns to talk to Janney’s attractive teenage daughter (AnnaSophia Robb) and stands up to his mother’s passive aggressive boyfriend.

But the film handles the material well and includes some solid performances, including James, who does a nearly cringe inducing job of portraying awkwardness, Janney and Rockwell, whose jokey nature and rapid fire quips hide a fear of adulthood.

“The Way, Way Back” is a sweet and funny addition to the American coming of age genre.

“The Lone Ranger” is playing at Forest Hills' UA Midway Stadium 9. “The Way, Way Back” is screening at Regal Union Square Stadium 14 and opens on July 12 at Kew Gardens Cinemas.