Just what I expected

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Haven't seen a movie take in the (Alberta) scenery this well since Unforgiven. If I hadn't lived there this movie would make me want to move there. Robert Duvall is good in every movie he's ever been in, this one included. Annette Bening should be in more movies. Kevin Costner, well, he does Kevin Costner well enough. Good supporting cast, including some reliable Canucks. The plot is 100% paint-by-numbers, from the bromance to the romance to the Peckinpah-level of killing. How did America come to accept all this blood as normal? No wonder it's a country where crazies are shooting up schools on a weekly basis.

I wasn't really sure if I was going to like this movie, mainly because I didn't know what it was going to be. It started out as a slow, rancher movie, but then it became a western rivalry revenge movie, and then a romance showed up! Turns out, Open Range is a lot like its title. It's a mixture of different western elements, and the hodgepodge totally works.Kevin Costner also directed this one, and he gives the same slow, steady hand to this movie as he gave to Dances With Wolves. The beautiful open country is captured with a realistic touch, and the small western town Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall travel to looks very authentic. Nothing is painted out to be more than it is, a theme in the filming as well as the storyline. Revenge is revenge, murder is murder, and love is love.Even if you're not really a fan of Annette Benning—it's okay, I'm not, either—she won't ruin the movie for you. Her character is written well, and even though her acting chops are better shown off in American Beauty, she's easy to root for here. I liked seeing Michael Gambon playing an unmistakable bad guy. I've never found him likable, anyway, so being able to root against him guilt-free for a change was very fun. And his Irish accent was really good! So, if you like westerns, shoot-outs, Kevin Costner, or Robert Duvall, watch Open Range during the next dusty fall afternoon.DLM warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, there's one scene in this movie that won't be your friend. Kevin Costner has a nightmare, and the camera gets a little fuzzy so it might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

What a great simple straightforward story, told well. No time-line chopping, just a nice linear story. No tragic hero that dies in the end. Just good guys and bad guys, and a happy ending, the way a Western should be. Can you believe the Hispanic kid was not killed off? What is remarkable is that I like the movie but I dislike Costner. Not as bad as I hate some other actors, but if you watch the bonus feature, he is almost as narcissistic as Tom Cruise in his bonus interview in The Last Samurai. It helps that Costner wears a beard so he is less recognizable to me, and his voice is not too obnoxious.Another really stunning thing is that they used an older Annette Bening instead of some barely-legal fluff babe as the female lead. Bening is at the height of her power as an actress. Small things she did were really expressive, it was a joy to watch. All the talent was great, as was the camera work and editing. Yeah, it moved slowly, but I didn't care, I so enjoyed being transported back there, watching something that seemed based on believable human behavior, not Hollywood action-porn. This was obviously written before the time of first-person-shooter video games and I love it for that.I still put True Grit as the best Western. After that, I used to put Tombstone. I never liked Unforgiven that much. So this was a great pleasure, as I would slot this in ahead of Tombstone, a solid #2. The voice-over in Tombstone makes it more like you are looking at the period. This movie immerses you in the period. You feel like you are living there back then.Last week at the library I was cursed by my selection of Child 44, Atonement, and Cowboys and Aliens. Now I knew C&A was a stinker, that is why I took it it out, but the other two were a real disappointment. So this week its this flick, Breach, and the X-men future passed movie. This movie alone was worth the trip to the library, and Breach was darn good as well. I am confident the X-men movie will be another teen fanboy movie that looks more like a first-person shooter than a movie. That's OK, that's what I expect. What was a joy was seeing a Kevin Costner movie I really liked.

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to his third directorial effort 2003's Open Range.Plot In A Paragraph: A former gunslinger (KC) is forced to take up arms again when he and his friends are threatened by a corrupt lawman.After his worst movie since the early 80's, KC responded with his best movie in 10 years. KC turned down the role of Bill in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 to do this movie, and I for one am glad he did. I'm also glad Robert Duvall took the role (within 24 hours of reading the script) as he was the only actor that Kevin Costner wanted for the role of Boss Spearman. He said if Duvall had turned down the part, he might not have made the movie at all. And that would have been a travesty. I can't praise the cast highly enough especially the two leads. Robert Duvall is perfect and KC fits this movie like a glove. It's beautifully shot and has a great score too. I'm not sure how many here will have seen it, but I love it!! At a little over two hours, this is the shortest of any movie KC has directed. I remember it took forever to come to the UK, about 6 months after its release in America, and I was disappointed (like with Thirteen Days) to find my screening less than half full, despite great reviews.