Critic Reviews
Open Range (2003) Rank 3 Reviews
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based on (312) reviews
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Appreciating Great Trash
San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)
ShowBIZ Data
Kevin Costner has brought the Western back to the movie theater, and film critics, who have not been especially kind to Costner in recent years, appear to be leaning over backward to find nice things to say about Open Range. A.O. Scott in the New York ...read the complete Open Range movie review at ShowBIZ Data
The Movie Chicks
Boss (Robert Duvall), Charley (Kevin Costner), Mose (Abraham Benrubi), and Button (Diego Luna) are four cowpokes driving their cattle across the open range of Montana - they are "free-grazing" and the local ranchers don't take kindly to ...read the complete Open Range movie review at The Movie Chicks
DVDActive (Benjamin Willcock)
A very decent DVD that you must check out is slightly marred by a disappointing array of special features. On the plus side however, the video and audio aspects are extremely polished and often impressive enough to warrant a purchase on that merit alone. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at DVDActive (Benjamin Willcock)
Movie Roundtable
Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
Open Range isn't without its problems -- its good guys are presented as men struggling against the urge to kill a helpless person, even if he is an enemy, but that struggle isn't terribly convincing because the movie has done too good a job showing us ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
UpcomingDiscs.com (Brian Ludovico)
Washington Post (Stephen Hunter)
It's a fine, old-fashioned 2 1/4 hours at the Bijou. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Washington Post (Stephen Hunter)
Boxoffice Magazine (Wade Major)
One of 2003's best films. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Boxoffice Magazine (Wade Major)
Empire (Alan Morrison)
A return to the Western in its pure, cinematic form. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Empire (Alan Morrison)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
Costner has not only salvaged his own career with Open Range, but just may have done for the Western what Moulin Rouge! and Chicago did for the musical. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
Apollo Guide (Jon Lap)
Costner’s epic, as director, is one to behold, not for its 24th hour sentimental about-face, but for the existential knack it has for the pacific, the stately and the quiet. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Apollo Guide (Jon Lap)
Jam! Movies (Louis B. Hobson)
The best duster since Clint Eastwood's 1992 triumph Unforgiven . ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Jam! Movies (Louis B. Hobson)
Film Threat (Kevin Carr)
This is probably one of the best westerns made since Kevin Costner first hopped on a horse in Silverado . ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Film Threat (Kevin Carr)
Providence Journal (Michael Janusonis)
Empire Magazine (--)
DVDTalk.com (Shannon Nutt)
Film Values/Family Values (H. Arthur Taussig)
ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)
Variety (Todd McCarthy)
An intensely scenic, refreshingly humanistic oater that dares to be sincere and open-hearted. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Variety (Todd McCarthy)
eFilmCritic.com (Scott Weinberg)
Costner approaches the project with an earnest nobility that's quite impressive, mainly because Earnest Nobility often becomes Unintentional Hilarity when coaxed too adamantly ...read the complete Open Range movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Scott Weinberg)
Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
Say what you like, think what you will, scoff if you have to (and you will definitely have to), but in the final analysis Kevin Knows Westerns. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
Mr. Cranky Rates the Movies (Mr. Cranky)
Time (Richard Corliss)
It's a real and rare pleasure to see Costner and Duvall together -- these masters of intense passivity, who know how to be watched when they're listening. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Time (Richard Corliss)
Film Threat (Rick Kisonak)
Costner sets course for one of the most stirringly choreographed shootouts in movie history. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Film Threat (Rick Kisonak)
CountingDown.com (Phillip Nakov)
Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
DVD Review e-zine
Hollywood Jesus Visual Reviews
Real Political Face Talk - DVD review
The Boston Phoenix
Natural Born Viewers
CultureDose.net (Lee Chase IV)
Film Monthly (Hank Yuloff)
BeyondHollywood.com
JackassCritics.com (Grim Ringler)
Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
It's been a while since Kevin Costner has been in a hit film, in fact, you'd have to go back to 1991's JFK to find one that wasn't considered at least a minor disappointment (notable exception: Thirteen Days, a supporting role). 2003 sees Costner taking ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
TNMC (John "Batman" Shea)
Movie Review Index - Reviews from Top Critics
Reel Film Reviews (David Nusair)
Reel Film Reviews (David Nusair)
Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Kevin Costner’s Open Range has one of the best Western shootouts ever committed to celluloid. It takes up nearly 20 minutes of the film, and in it Costner depicts with frightening clarity the reality of what it must have been like to exchange rounds ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Boston Globe
There's a gun in just about every scene of the new western ''Open Range.'' They're often seen -- rifles propped up against the bar at a saloon, six-shooters burning holes in men's holsters -- but, until the film's seat-gripping second hour, rarely heard. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Boston Globe
Cinema Signals by The Filmiliar Cineaste
Reel Movie Critic (Cathy Edsey Collins)
Much maligned in recent years, perhaps from the horde of unoriginal, cliché-ridden films cranked out in the `50s, the western has experienced a rebirth of late. With Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" and Kevin Costner's "Dances With ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Reel Movie Critic (Cathy Edsey Collins)
hip online
Robert Duvall is a good cowboy. Kevin Costner is somewhere in between. When he plays it cool you have to like him but when he goes over the top it gets too far for anyone's taste. The visuals are wonderful. I'd like to find out where they shot this film ...read the complete Open Range movie review at hip online
Laramie Movie Scope (Robert Roten)
This is a good film. Not up to the level of the best of the genre, but it is a solid, well-crafted movie. It marks a welcome return of the classic western, the only truly American genre, after too long of an absence. It seems unlikely that the genre ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Laramie Movie Scope (Robert Roten)
Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)
A patient, suspenseful exercise in genre ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)
Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)
New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
Open Range could easily have lost 20 minutes in the editing room, but its very casual pacing and beautiful vistas - gorgeously photographed in British Columbia by James Munro - are a soothing alternative in a season of movies seemingly aimed at sufferers ...read the complete Open Range movie review at New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)
Costner missteps late in the love story, inserting scenes in which the actors are forced to say things their faces have already expressed, but he makes nary a false step in the climactic shootout, which he stages with energy and intelligence. The scene ...read the complete Open Range movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)
Peter Sobczynski
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
This is a great two-hour motion picture. Unfortunately, it runs 20 minutes longer than that. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Arizona Daily Star (Phil Villarreal)
Costner seems to fashion himself as a modern-day Frank Capra, pitting his flawed but morally centered heroes against a system waiting to tear them to shreds. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Arizona Daily Star (Phil Villarreal)
New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
A flawed but highly entertaining B Western blown up to John Ford scale. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
Aisle Seat (Mike McGranaghan)
An engrossing moral viewpoint combined with three solid star performances is more than enough to make Open Range one of the best of the modern day Westerns. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Aisle Seat (Mike McGranaghan)
Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
Costner saves his best work for the finale, an electrifying gun battle that steers clear of Western clichés to re-create the chaos and brutality of a place thick with flying bullets. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
Kalamazoo Gazette (James Sanford)
This is by far the best film Costner has made in the past six years. As always, his direction misses no details, instilling considerably more sensitivity in the movie than you might expect to find in a Western. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Kalamazoo Gazette (James Sanford)
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Jeff Strickler)
Costner is not the most exuberant actor, but, for the most part, that's an asset here. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Minneapolis Star Tribune (Jeff Strickler)
Zap2it.com (Michael Szymanski)
Kevin Costner is back in the saddle again, and people are going to start using "Oscar" and "Costner" in the same sentence again. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Zap2it.com (Michael Szymanski)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Dave Tianen)
Costner doesn't seek to reinvent the classic Westerns as much as simply honor them. On those modest terms, he succeeds. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Dave Tianen)
Los Angeles Daily News (Glenn Whipp)
Open Range is actually pretty good. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Los Angeles Daily News (Glenn Whipp)
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
...a movie my 79-year-old grandfather will love. And I can't think of a better compliment. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
Movie Parables (Michael Elliott)
The romanticism of the wild west gives way to the practical aspects of having to live in it. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Movie Parables (Michael Elliott)
Charlotte Observer (Lawrence Toppman)
Nobody smells of sagebrush, campfire coffee, tobacco (smoked or chewed) and saddle soap like Duvall. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Charlotte Observer (Lawrence Toppman)
Entertainment Weekly (Owen Gleiberman)
There's nothing corny, however, about the climactic shoot-out, which Costner has staged superbly as an extended logistical mini-war that surges and rifle-cracks with bloody abandon through what feels like every building in town. Call it dances with guns. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Entertainment Weekly (Owen Gleiberman)
New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
A flawed but highly entertaining B Western blown up to John Ford scale. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
The Onion A.V. Club (Scott Tobias)
Before it was released to great acclaim and armloads of Oscars in 1990, Kevin Costner's directorial debut Dances With Wolves was widely derided in the press as "Kevin's Gate," the sort of expensive vanity project that financiers might write off as a ...read the complete Open Range movie review at The Onion A.V. Club (Scott Tobias)
Entertain Your Brain! - Review
Kansas City Star (Robert W. Butler)
A film that recycles familiar elements from a variety of cowboy classics but still establishes and maintains its own unique sensibility. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Kansas City Star (Robert W. Butler)
eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
A flashback to both the great American western and a form of storytelling where gunshots were not an immediate reaction but a methodical inevitability. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Panorama (Louis-Jérôme Cloutier)
Open Range est tout simplement un bon vieux western qui fait plaisir à voir. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Panorama (Louis-Jérôme Cloutier)
Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)
Although Open Range is far from perfect, it offers some of the rudimentary pleasures of the Western. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)
Kvikmyndir.com (Jon Hakon Halldorsson)
The Popkorn Junkie
Movie Habit (Marty Mapes)
Open Range looks gorgeous and sounds very good on DVD. The film is presented in widescreen (2.35:1), and is enhanced for 16:9 TVs. Sound is encoded in Dolby Digital and DTS. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Movie Habit (Marty Mapes)
SPLICEDwire (Rob Blackwelder)
Christian Spotlight on the Movies
ToxicUniverse.com (Lee Chase IV)
Costner is good in the film, too. He's nicely restrained here; watching the film, I noticed many places where he could have over acted but he doesn't. He shows a lot of confidence as a director, which is a good and a bad thing. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at ToxicUniverse.com (Lee Chase IV)
TV Guide Entertainment Network, Movie Guide
The Movie Insider (Lynda Lin)
How Open Range rises above the pitfalls of latter day western genres is through staying true to form. There is no gross overuse of CG technology or camera tricks—clean and simple angles and modest dialogue complement the splendid scenes of mountains and ...read the complete Open Range movie review at The Movie Insider (Lynda Lin)
Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
Kamen's approach to Open Range is "soft" because his
music for the film has the same kind of tender touch throughout its majority
as Don Juan DeMarco, which is an extremely easy and romantic
listening experience. The title theme ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
Movie Navigator (Shaun Sages)
Reel.com
Open Range is Costner's fourth western. Aside from the Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves (1990), he also starred in two for director Lawrence Kasdan : the underrated Silverado (1985) and the interminable Wyatt Earp (1994). While not in the same class as ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Reel.com
Looking Closer (Jeffrey Overstreet)
Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)
Though visually lovely and ambitious, never soars to the heights achieved by "Unforgiven." Costner’s film lacks the moral complexity that might earn it a solid berth in the canon of the American Western. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)
Mark R. Leeper
But cowmen with drifting herds are still common and "Boss" Spearman (played by Robert Duvall) is one of them. Boss's main hand is Charley Waite (Kevin Costner who also produced and directed the film), who has worked for Boss for ten years. Then he has ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Mark R. Leeper
Frank's Reel Reviews
Boston Herald (James Verniere)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Whatever his faults as a filmmaker may be, Kevin Costner certainly understands the Western. Although Open Range is not on the same level as Dances with Wolves, it's a respectable effort that is only slightly marred by the unnecessarily protracted denoueme ...read the complete Open Range movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
DVD-Dweeb.Com (Oliver Korioth)
3 Black Chicks ("Bams")
Juicy Cerebellum (Alex Sandell)
Entertainment Insiders (Rusty White)
IndependentCritics.com (Jacob Hall)
dvdfuture.com (Randy Spiros)
Kevin Costner is back or to put it another way, the western is back. Costner is the only artist that hasn't given up on this genre. His first western was Lawrence Kasdan's "Silverado," not a great movie and helped accelerate the western's decline. Eleven ...read the complete Open Range movie review at dvdfuture.com (Randy Spiros)
MediaScreen.com
Film Blather (Eugene Novikov)
Channel 4 Film (Andy Richards)
Costner teams with Robert Duvall (a class act, as always) to play Charley Waits and his employer Boss Spearman, a pair of itinerant cowboys living off the land with their modest stock and a couple of hired hands (including Diego Luna, one of Y Tu Mamá ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Channel 4 Film (Andy Richards)
filmdeculte.com (Anthony Sitruk)
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
txreviews.com (Curtis Edmonds)
Crosswalk.com Movies (Holly McClure)
The DVD Report (Britt Gillette)
eFilmCritic Reviews
Joe Critic.com (Rick Elliot)
Frank's Reel Reviews
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
musicOMH (Shawn Fitzgerald)
Guess the Gross
Movies 101 (Robert Glatzer)
filethirteen.com
Aggressive-Voice.com - Movie Reviews
MovieEye.com (David Litton)
JoBlo's Movie Emporium (JoBlo)
Movie-Vault.com (Scott Spicciati)
hybridmagazine.com
Reel.com DVD review (Kim Morgan)
The Cranky Critic (Chuck Schwartz)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
eFilmCritic (Scott Weinberg)
filmz.dk Film Review
Almost Fabulous Movie Reviews
The Trades (Max Braden)
Citysearch (Bill Pearis)
After a long string of bombs, Costner delivers a real winner that will remind people why he won an Oscar for Dances with Wolves . ...read the complete Open Range movie review at Citysearch (Bill Pearis)
The Onion (A.V. Club) (Scott Tobias)
Mostly it's just a good yarn, with attractive picture-postcard vistas and an agreeable strain of light humor. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Scott Tobias)
txreviews.com (Curtis Edmonds)
The Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)
In spite of its portentousness, the film does engage one. ...read the complete Open Range movie review at The Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)
eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
Shadows on the W