The Missing (2 of 5)

Ron Howard’s loose remake of the perfect ‘œThe Searchers’’¦but really from the book ‘˜The Last Ride ‘˜. The film follows an old west mother/healer/rancher when Indians kidnap one of her children. A visit from her estranged father who left married life to become an Indian, only adds to the problems. They team up in search of the Indians that did it. Good acting by all involved, but none stands out. Even the Cameo by Val Kilmer was flat and uninteresting. No unique twists, no anything, really. The story has been told before’¦and 5 times better at that. Ron left no signature on the film and the cinematography was dismally dark or washed out. Fight scenes were horribly filmed and story points just dropped away without explanation. Not ten minutes went by that I didn’t notice a scene that could have been done better. Many of which could have faired better if Ron had stolen from his other western film, the visually stunning ‘˜Far and Away’™. ‘˜Open Range’™ took last years western in the right direction’¦this one just made them mediocre again.