Appaloosa...

Westerns are a niche genre. Not so much in how many people like them, but in how they work. Any movie could be a good western, not every western can be a good movie. Not every western can be a good western.

Appaloosa is not a good western. It's an okay film, but it just doesn't work in the genre in which it's placed.

It's fairly standard fare as far as story line goes. Sheriff comes to a town that is being overrun by a vicious gang and he needs to restore law and order with his trusty sidekick...er...deputy. Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen play the parts of sheriff and deputy, respectively, fairly well. Renee Zellwegger is...certainly in the movie. I can't tell if it was her character, or the way she played her character, but something was very unremarkable about her role. Jeremy Irons probably played best as the villain, though his fake south western American accent was laughable the first few minutes until I got used to it. Or stopped paying attention.

Again, let me say that this isn't a terrible movie. There is certainly no reason not to see the film. But, if you're going for a western, there are certainly much better choices to be made. Because this isn't a western. It's a movie. It could have been placed in 1920's Chicago, Millennial New York, or 1600's Scotland and it would have played exactly the same. That isn't a praise of it's universality as a story, it's a dig at it's plainness.

Westerns are supposed to have some sense of grandeur. Some tension of man against man. They should have some grit, some dirt under their fingernails. Appaloosa certainly looked dusty, but I just didn't buy the characters as western. Viggo Mortensen probably more than the others. The relationship that develops between Ed Harris' Virgil and Renee Zellwegger's Allison hamstrung Virgil's character, which made everything else about him questionable. He couldn't have been as street smart as he was supposed to be and fall for it. And if he would fall for it like he did, then he couldn't have been as street smart as he was and would probably have been killed a long time ago.

If you're looking for a good movie, maybe just to kill some time, this would be your pick. If you're looking for a good western, this is not what you want. Re-watch The Dollars Trilogy, or How the West Was Won, or even Tombstone before choosing this.