One actor saves this film and another one ruins it. The savior of this movie is the greatness of Viggo Mortensen. He looks the part and his character has the most appeal. The anchor that sinks this movie is the always annoying Renee Zellweger. She sticks out like a sore thumb and her botoxed face and modern dialogue just do not fit into a story that takes place in the 1880's. I even began getting irritated by Ed Harris's character because of the way he acted in her presence and pondered why he was even attracted to her. I liked Viggo and Harris as a team,but too bad they thought they had to throw her into this film. Jeremy Irons is wasted and the film is more of a love story than a western. I like the overall story, but the film suffers from a bad script. The dialogue is too modern and the story at times is not plausible and this only occurs with the love story,which is 70% of the film. I wish they would have just stuck with two lawmen dealing with a corrupt cattle barren. I know that story is tired, but with Viggo, Harris and Irons it would at least be entertaining. Lose the Love Story and add a scene of Zellweger getting stampeded in the first 5 minutes and you have a picture. The cinematography by Dean Semler is gorgeous and one of the best looking films of 2008. The gunfight scenes are top notch and realistic. Between Zellweger and bad dialogue Appaloosa was a disappointment. 3 out of 5 stars
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