Review: Rango

Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, and Director Gore Verbinski team back up for Nickelodeon's animated, family wester Rango. Who thought this would be a good idea?

Rango follows the story of a pet chameleon on a search for identity- literally, he doesn't have a name at the beginning of the film. He, the unnamed reptile, ventures into the Mojave Desert after his owners almost get involved in a car accident that sends him flying out into the street. There, he meets a lady lizzard who shows him into the dying town of Dirt where he unexpectedly is named Sheriff.

To be fair, I only have a couple of problems with this film. One of these problems is that all the characters are crude; everybody is mean to everybody else and if there is a kind soul who lives in this town, I never saw him.

Rango himself pushes over the same old lady twice and robs her or her water jug to fit in with the rest of the town and calls two children ugly. To add to that, Rango falls in love but the only time he makes a move on her is when she is unconscious; one time he puts his arm around her and the other time he kisses her. The fact that he can't do any of these things when she is conscious makes him seem like a creep and made it hard for me to like the hero, even though it's meant to be funny.

The other problem I had with this film is that all the humor is either too vulgur or too awkward to be funny. In one scene, Rango and a few other are sitting around a fire, arguing about who has coughed up the largest object. One guy adds in: "I once found a human spinal column in my fecal matter". Another character walks around with an arrow through his eye and there are many references to shooting off other critters' "giblets" and "unmentionables".

Sure the animation is amazing and the premise is promising enough; however, Rango is too busy being crude and awkward to take advantage of its full potential.