Viggo Mortensen Interview THE ROAD

Viggo Mortensen has consistently earned acclaim for his work in a wide range of films, including most recently Eastern Promises, A History of Violence and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2008, he starred again with and was directed by Ed Harris in Appaloosa. We sat down with him this past weekend to talk about [...]

Bridget Jones 3?

I'll say that at the time JERRY MAGUIRE came out, I was a big fan of Renee Zellweger. I thought she was perfect in the movie and destined for a big career. And I guess in some ways I was right I'm just surprised that her career seems to be winding down. I can't remember a single decent Zellweger film since CINDERELLA MAN (and even that is debatable). APPALOOSA was pretty good but Renee's performance is better... Read More...

DVD: Appaloosa

Jason Adams reviews "Appaloosa" Read More...

Blu-ray Review: Appaloosa

The western genre is a tricky one for feature films nowadays. They used to be a dime a dozen, but it seems they went out of style for good after Clint Eastwood made the superb Unforgiven in 1992 and has yet to return to the genre. Kevin Costner made the stinker of a film in [...]

APPALOOSA DVD Review -- Ben says Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are the reason to watch this film

When sitting down to watch a western made in this decade, I typically hold all of them up to the standards of Tombstone or even 3:10 to Yuma. I expect really dynamic character development and tons of gun fights in saloons with sassy bar maids and harlots ducking in the wings. Hollywoods new found affinity to western films is a welcome resurgence of the genre. I loved 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was one of my favorite films of last year. So where does Appaloosa stand with the greats of western film hierarchy? The films strengths are its two amazing leads Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, but it starts to lose steam when a young damsel (Renee Zellweger) gets in the way, derailing the pace a bit. The plot follows two men, Everett Hitch (Mortensen) and Virgil Cole (Harris), who ...

Whats Buzzing: The Spout Community 1/14/09

So much good stuff happening in the Spout discussion and group communities lately. Discussions: The Worst of 2008 Movies Spout Needs to Watch Oscar Buzz and Awards Season 2009 APPALOOSA DVD Giveaway Best Movie Lists — DVD giveaway Lists: L.A. is Like . . . Nowhere (36) Golden Globes Winners, 2009 (12) Films featuring Hillary Clinton (34) Breaking the Fourth Wall (8) Top 5 Female Lead Performances for 2008 (11)

This Week on DVD: Appaloosa, Mirrors, The Order of Myths

Much like the theatre, it’s kind of a slow week for new releases on DVD, but if you’re lucky maybe you’ll find something of interest in this week’s batch of discs. Major titles include the Ed Harris western Appaloosa, Alexandre Aja’s K-horror remake Mirrors starring Kiefer Sutherland, and the Kevin Costner election comedy Swing Vote. [...]

Film Junk Podcast Episode #195: Rachel Getting Married

0:00 - Intro / In-House Stuff 04:55 - Headlines: Steven Seagal’s Reality Show, Digital Projection Snafus, X-Men First Class, Oscar Documentary Shortlist, John Carpenters The Prince 27:05 - What We Watched: Futurama: Benders Game, Drakmar: A Vassals Journey, Appaloosa, Open Range, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Slumdog Millionaire, Kitchen Nightmares 49:58 - Junk Mail: Movie Pet Peeves, Recommended [...]

"Appaloosa" is a long, long ways from Lollapalooza

This picture sums up the movie, Appaloosa. Ed Harris directs and stars in a film adaptation that he co-wrote. Quiet and contemplative, but of what, we're not sure. Makes it a point that he's unedumacated and unemotional and unconnected. Viggo Mortensen is his gunman and the two serve the Southwest as rent-a-marshals protecting the town from Jeremy Irons, who's ultimately, a threat in more ways than one. In strolls Renee Zellweger. B*tch. Is it me, or does she always look...

Review: Appaloosa

There's no question Appaloosa is a Western. It's set in 1882 in the New Mexico Territory, it has tin-star-wearing city marshals getting into gunfights with ornery cusses, it includes some scenes involving problems with Indians -- the whole nine yards. But underneath all that, it's really just a buddy movie, a rough-and-tumble, no-girls-allowed, steak-and-potatoes romp that happens to be set in the Old West. It's as much Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as it is Butch and Sundance.

The buddies are Virgil Cole (Ed Harris, who also directed) and his sidekick, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), an inseparable pair of freelance peacekeepers and expert gunmen. At the film's outset, they are hired by the dusty frontier town of the title to protect it from Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), a devious rancher whose band of ne'er-do-wells occasionally murders local citizens, including the previous city marshal. With Cole as the new marshal and Hitch as his deputy, the two set about enforcing law and order.

One of the town's new ordinances, under Cole's direction, is that you can't bring guns inside the city boundaries. He informs a couple of Bragg's men of this when they show up at the saloon one day.

"That's the law," Cole says.

"Your law," replies one of the men, scoffing.

"Same thing," Cole says. OH SNAP!

Filed under: Action, Drama, New Releases, New Line, Theatrical Reviews, Western

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