Appaloosa [2008]

I watched Appaloosa this afternoon. It's based on a Robert B. Parker novel I haven't read. Ed Harris directed and starred in it. It had lots of neat guns [8 gauge double-barreled shotgun. Boom! ow! shit!] that actually fit the time period portrayed so they did their research. But it was all in all a standard western. It wasn't a bad movie it just rubbed me the wrong way. the plot is a standard plot. A town is being harassed by an evil rancher. The Rancher, Jeremy Irons, murders the sheriff and his deputies when they try to arrest a couple of his men who murdered a man and his wife. The town hires Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen to replace the sheriff. At the request of Harris the town council bans guns inside the town. Harris' first act as sheriff is to challenge three thugs in the saloon. when they refuse to surrender their guns he and his deputy shoot them down. So I get to choose between the thug rancher or the thug lawmen to root for and can't really give a damn for either. Renée Zellweger plays the love interest [I'll watch her in almost anything] and the dynamic between her, Harris, and Mortensen is interesting but not enough to overcome the rest of the movie. Oh well maybe someday Tom Selleck will make another western.