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Faced with a saloon full of suspicious townsfolk, the stranger Rango (Johnny Depp) does what any chameleon would do: He fits in. He slurps his gut-burning cactus juice, he makes up a story about killing seven brothers with one bullet. He even changes color. His listeners — a crowd of moles, rats, rabbits, toads and other Mojave desert denizens — are rapt: They’re desperate for a hero, water and faith. And this lizard is a great storyteller. Rather than walking through easy-target pop culture references, Rango absorbs, embraces and pays heartfelt homage to some exceedingly classic sources, from Depp’s own Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to Chinatown. If Rango resembles Eastwood, then the lady, Beans (Isla Fisher), recalls every tough chick of the Old West, from Annie Oakley to Jean Arthur to Claudia Cardinale. The villain, an aging turtle (Ned Beatty) in a wheelchair, becomes Chinatown’s John Huston as Noah Cross. Gazing out on a water-pumping facility under construction, he informs his guest that he’s looking at “The future, Mr. Rango, the future.” Here, as in Roman Polanski’s definitive noir, water and wealth are conjoined, as is the desert and L.A. — which come together in the dream-making industry that is the future and our ongoing present. —Cindy Fuchs

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Official Site: www.RangoMovie.com

Rating:	PG
Director:	Gore Verbinski
Cast:	Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Ned Beatty, Stephen Root
Release Date:	March 4, 2011 (Nationwide)
Running Time:	107
Distributor:	Paramount Pictures
Producer:	John B. Carls, Graham King, Gore Verbinski
Genre:	Animation, Action/Adventure
Advisory:	for rude humor, language, action and smoking