Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides


The original Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, took Hollywood and audiences by surprise. Nobody expected much from a film based on a theme park attraction. And a successful pirate movie had not been made in many a year. But a clever script and a head turning performance by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, resulted in a critical and commercial hit beyond all expectations.

A basic axiom in Hollywood is that a hugely successful movie immediately becomes a tent pole for an entire franchise and hence, The Pirates of the Caribbean series was born.

The first two sequels Dead Man's Chest and World's End were filmed back to back and are, in reality one film split in half. Neither film received the critical praise of the first movie but both went on to be big hits at the box office. When viewed individually the two sequels are confusing masses of multiple sub-plots and intertwining characters and neither film stands up to critical scrutiny.

But if you sat down for eight hours and watched all three in a row what you would have is an epic tale about the undying true love Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, and their adventures with Captain Jack Sparrow. And this brings me to my point. In the first three movies Captain Jack was not the only star of the films. He shared screen time with Elizabeth and Will, Captain Barbossa and Davey Jones himself. Captain Jack is the catalyst for much that happens, but he is not the one who grows and changes during the film. It is not his story we are watching.

In the new film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) is the star. the film follows his adventure to find the fountain of youth. But Captain Jack is fun and interesting in small doses. He is at his best when he is plotting and planning and making clever comments and asides as the action occurs around him. The problem with making a movie with Captain Jack Sparrow as the central character is that he does not grow or change. Captain Jack is who he is and the more we see of him the less interesting he becomes.

Johnny Depp still owns the role and his performance brings back all the same mannerisms and weirdness we loved. It's just that we are used to it by now. Penelope Cruz turns up as Angelica, an old flame of Jack's who just happens to be the daughter of Blackbeard the Pirate. Cruz and Depp have chemistry but their witty banter is nothing compared to the unspoken romance of Captain Jack and Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightly) in the original films.

Ian McShane takes on the role of Blackbeard the Pirate and he has some fun with it, but not enough. His reputation is that of the pirate that pirates fear, but except for his fire breathing ship (???) he does not come across all that bad. 

Geoffrey Rush returns as barbossa who is now a privateer in his majesty's navy. For his own reasons he is also chasing after Blackbeard. Rush too seems to be playing his character by memory. 

The movie opens with a rousing chase scene set in London that begins with Jack Sparrow having an audience with King George and ends with Captain Jack receiving a warning from his pirate father, Keith Richards. (Judi Dench also has a brief and funny cameo.)

The London set-up seems to promise an exciting action packed frolic, much like the first film, filled with an equal mixture of comedy, drama and action. Instead, once the main story begins, when all the characters are searching for the fountain of youth, the film settles into a dull pattern action, talk, talk, action, talk and never goes anywhere.The audience never really cares about the quest or why any of them are looking for the fountain. In fact Jack does not even seem to have a reason. 

The story itself is very straight forward and hence boring. In the other Pirate movies you were never quite sure what was going on but you were always able to follow along as events transpired. In the fourth film the inspired lunacy of director Gore Verbinski is replaced with the by the numbers story telling of director Rob Marshall. It seems to me that after putting all his razzle-dazzle in his film Chicago, director Marshall has never been able to add that "something extra" to any of his other films. Since Chicago his subsequent movies, Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine and now Pirates have all lacked energy that would give them life beyond their plot outlines. Of the four films On Stranger Tides is the shortest, but somehow it felt like the longest.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a fun summer popcorn movie and it's great to see Jack Sparrow back in action again, but I wish the director and writers had given him a more worthy adventure to pursue.

At The Movie House Rating **1/2 stars


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Movies To Watch While You Continue To Wait For The Rapture

An anonymous reader pointed out that I missed a film about the end of the world starring Harry Belafonte, but they could not remember the title.

They are thinking of The Word, The Flesh and The Devil. 


The movie stars Belafonte, Inger Stevens and Mel Ferrer as three survivors of a nuclear holocaust and does feature startling scenes of an eerily empty new York City.

Actually films of nuclear Armageddon are plentiful and since it looks like The Rapture has been delayed this may be an opportunity to catch up on a few.

Fail Safe - when the US and the Soviet Union are brought to the brink of war.



On The Beach - nuclear holocaust survivors search for a safe place to live.



Testament - the effects of nuclear devastation on the residents of a small California town. 



The Day After Tomorrow - frightening made for TV movie from the early eighties.
(poster is for Spanish theatrical release)

And of course I can't leave out one of the most famous post-apocalyptic film series of all time,
The Planet of the Apes.








The Missing Woody Allen's

To Celebrate the release of Woody Allen's forty-first film as writer/director I was preparing a post of my all time favorite Woody Allen movies, when I realized that there were many films of his I still have not seen. I took a count and realized that, including Midnight in Paris, I have not seen fifteen of his forty-one films, or over a third of his body of work. I will start remedying that immediately since, with the exception of Midnight in Paris, I own all of them. Here in descending order of release are the 15 films I have not seen.


2011



2010


2009


2007


2006


2005


2001



1999


1998


1997


1992



1992



1988


1987



1978

Starting this week I'll be having a Woody Allen Missing Film Festival culminating with Midnight in Paris when it opens here in San Francisco.

Movies To Watch While You Wait For The Rapture


According to Harold Camping the end of the world will happen at 6 PM today (I don't remember if that was east coast or west coast time). When it happens the faithful will be lifted up bodily to heaven and those left behind will endure five months of horror until the world ends in October.

The end of the world as we know it is nothing new in Hollywood. Filmmakers have envisioned our end through many means. While you are waiting for the 6 O'clock hour to roll around and the rapture to begin take the opportunity to settle down with some popcorn and one last movie. Here are some doom and destruction recommendations.


 From director Michael Tolkin this 1991 film starring David Duchovny and Mimi Rogers deals directly with the subject of those who believe in The Rapture.


Without directly mentioning The Rapture this 2009 thriller starring Nicholas Cage deals with predictions that may reveal horrific events to come. 


The third film in The Omen trilogy this one deals directly with the rise of the anti-christ and the second coming of Christ.


Not all doomsday movies are based in spiritual destruction. Last year's 2012 dealt with the massive destruction of the earth due to shifts in the earth's crust causing massive earthquakes and tsunami's that wipe out civilization.


In 2004's The Day After Tomorrow it was global warming that cause a massive melt of the polar ice caps, which in turn cause hurricane force winter storms that freeze everyone to death.



Destruction by melting ice caps was also the cause of the world's destruction in the dreadful Waterworld from 1995.


Doom from outer space has been depicted by Hollywood for many years. The first cause of our destruction is the stray flying object such as a meteor, asteroid or comet that crashes into the earth and brings about the end of civilization. Here are some of the best.


From 1951 comes one of the earliest sci-fi disaster films When Worlds Collide.


In 1979 we had the all-star disaster film Meteor. It was a disaster in every sense of the word.


And in 1998 Hollywood offered up dueling meteor films. Armageddon was an action packed thriller starring Bruce Willis



And Deep Impact was an intellectual melodrama with an all star cast. The Winner at the box office was Armageddon.

The other form of doom coming from space is the alien invasion. This has been depicted in countless films but three of the best are:


George Pal's 1953 adaptation of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds


Independence Day from 1994, featuring a worldwide attack of giant alien ships and humanity's attempt to survive.


And from 2005 Steven Spielberg revisited H.G. Wells sci-fi classic with a new interpretation starring Tom Cruise.

The aliens may not come in giant ships to destroy us all. Instead they may come as something else, something sinister that takes over our minds and bodies and destroys our souls. jack Finney envisioned this in his classic sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers which has been adapted into multiple films.


1956


1978


1993


2007

The end of the world may not come from aliens or asteroids from outer space. Instead it may come from within. From man's own mind and the creation of biological or mechanical terrors that doom us all.

Richard Matheson's sci-fi thriller I Am Legend has been adapted by Hollywood three times. 


1964's US/Italian production of The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price


The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston from 1971


I Am Legend starring Will Smith from 2009. 

If a rare virus does not get us then it will be the terror of our own inventions that doom us all.





The Terminator series, beginning in 1984 and ending in 2009, depict the doom of man by machines of his own creation.


The Matrix also depicts a world where the machines have taken over and humans are now a never ending, renewable power source to keep them going.


And just in case The Rapture is late in coming you can entertain yourself with the ultimate battle of good and evil by watching  Stephen King's The Stand. Produced in 1994 this 6 hour mini-series features a post apocalyptic world where 96% of the population has been wiped out by a man made virus and those left behind must choose sides in the final stand between good and evil.