Mark Wahlberg thinks you should cut Johnny Depp and The Lone Ranger a little slack.
In case you haven’t heard, Disney and director Gore Verbinski’s big-budget western is set to cost the studio a ton of money. According to Depp and co-star Armie Hammer, critics are the main reason why nobody ventured out into theaters to catch the flick.
Days after the actor’s comments started making the rounds online, 2 Guns star Mark Wahlberg decided to weigh in on the matter. He seems to agree with Depp that there’s simply too much negative press surrounding these big-budget films.
“First and foremost, the media is targeting all these movies. There’s intense scrutiny on us, way more than before,” Wahlberg told the Los Angeles Times .
However, the Pain and Gain star isn’t putting all of the blame on movie critics. He also believes that the Hollywood marketing machine isn’t properly doing its job. In Mark Wahlberg’s humble opinion, sometimes advertising can be more than a little misleading.
“They are spending so much money to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes with these effects-driven movies. It’s not like Jurassic Park, where you saw something groundbreaking and innovative and said ‘Holy s*** I gotta see that. Every end-of-the-Earth movie kind of feels the same,” he added.
Although critics and marketing can play a huge part in a film’s success, sometimes it all boils down to quality. The Lone Ranger could have survived the negativity if the flick had good word of mouth. The audience score over at Rotten Tomatoes is currently perched at 61 percent, which isn’t very strong.
Sometimes it all comes down to what the public wants to see. Despite getting consistently shredded by critics, the Resident Evil series continues to make money for the folks at Sony Pictures. As a result, the studio keeps pumping out sequels. In this case, reviews don’t matter at all.
Had Verbinski and Disney kept The Lone Ranger’s budget under control, perhaps the studio wouldn’t be in this situation. At the end of the day, sometimes these huge movies just don’t work out. Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer should probably just take their lumps and realize that they all can’t be zingers.
What do you think about Mark Wahlberg coming to Johnny Depp’s defense regarding The Lone Ranger? Do you think critics are to blame for the film’s failure at the box office?
[Image via Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com ]