Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Users Review)

Frustratingly Entertaining,
Author: diac228 (diac1987@netscape.net) from Orlando, Florida

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is one of my favorite television shows, even though its gone a bit downhill lately. Is it the cast? No, because they are mostly intact. What is actually happening is that each of the main characters, known for their superb chemistry amongst each other, are suddenly spending less screen time with each other and more time to themselves. This story actually has a point. On Stranger Tides suffers the same fate: fantastic cast that don't spend as much time with each other as we hope. Add some pointless plot lines, a calmer first-third of the flick, and you have yourself the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

That being said, its still quite entertaining. On Stranger Tides follows a variety of people searching for the fabled Fountain of Youth. Unfortunately for us, its not just Jack Sparrow. We have Blackbeard, the Spanish, the British (led by Barbossa), Angelica, and more doing the same thing. Subplots pertaining to this quest include Jack's past with Angelica, Barbossa's questionable change in character, some random guy falling for some random girl (I am serious, this part was totally pointless), and the pointless Spanish people that flock in and out of the movie.

This is by far the weakest part of the movie, the script. For some odd reason, they borrowed far too much from the novel (whose pacing and themes far differ that of the Pirates brand) and forgot that sometimes simplicity is best---which is what made Curse of the Black Pearl such a great film. It was the easiest to follow, and On Stranger Tides didn't learn from the previous two installments. To add to that, the script utterly separated everyone, even those with the best on-screen chemistry. Barbossa was barely with Jack Sparrow, Sparrow was rarely with his ex-lover, and worst of all reliable Gibbs spent minimal time with Sparrow. When they are together, the humor, the banter, tension, and the charm works well. When they aren't, well, the movie drags a bit.

Thank goodness the cast is still on their game. Johnny Depp once again breathes life into the pirate movie with his smart, unpredictable, and hilarious portrayal of Jack Sparrow. Despite what the reviews say, Jack Sparrow's shtick isn't getting old as he is still a delight to watch. Geoffrey Rush once again shines as Jack's best rival Barbossa, as his quiet intentions resemble that of Sparrow in earlier films. Penelope Cruz adds a layer of sexuality that we definitely did not have with the other Pirates of the Caribbeans--it's just a shame she didn't have much time with Sparrow. Director Rob Marshall was able to shell out good performances from everyone in the cast, but he definitely wasn't the man for this job.

Almost all the chase scenes or action sequences were done with very low-lighting and poor camera angles. With the exception of the mesmerizing and chilling mermaid sequence and the opening chase, all the action moments were missing that special touch. While the bizarreness of Gore Verbinski will not be totally missed (although his style worked perfectly in Rango), his ability to crank out excellent stuntwork and fights was sorely missing here. At least we got to see plenty of it, from the opening chase to the final dramatic (and short) showdown. Say whatever you want, but there has yet to be anything that can top the infamous three-way sword fight/old mill showdown from Dead Man's Chest.

Bottom Line: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a mix of frustration and fun. There was plenty of potential that wasn't met because of questionable plot lines, pointless moments, lack of chemistry (once again: writer's fault. Good going Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio), and uneven direction. All that banter aside, Pirates is also plenty fun with several delightful moments, funny lines, and much more action than the last Pirates flick. Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and company keep the movie afloat, and prevent it from being a pure bore. But I think the franchise works better when Verbinski is behind the camera. On Stranger Tides is decent summer entertainment, but doesn't have the inescapable magic and charm of the first two.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2011

The Roommate Movie Reviews

Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Synopsis: A psychological thriller about a deranged college freshman (Leighton Meester) who becomes obsessed with her new roommate (Minka Kelly)

A small-town girl comes to the fictional University of Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of being a fashion designer and encounters a roommate who is clingy to the point of psychotic. Starring Minka Kelly as that starry-eyed newcomer and Leighton Meester as her 1,000-yard-stare nemesis, "The Roommate" is a waste all around of young, attractive actresses, Los Angeles locations and the time of anyone unlucky enough to sit through it.

The Roommate seems to be this: Avoid the goons outside the Greek system. When Kelly first arrives at ULA, she’s eager to party at frat houses with her fun-loving, hard-drinking new friend Aly Michalka, and she finds a super-bland suitor in Cam Gigandet, the drummer for a band that doesn’t play much beyond house parties. By contrast, Meester is a brooding artist type who’s immediately tagged as a weirdo for digging abstract, contemporary art. Though Kelly doesn’t notice the warning signs, Meester scares off Kelly’s friends with creepy, obsessive behavior, warding off anyone who tries to come between her and her new best friend. By the time Kelly picks up on Meester’s intensity, it may be too late for Cuddles.

For much of "The Roommate's" early going any deficiencies in Meester's character are signaled largely by the fact that she has meekly limp hair, in counterpoint to Kelly's luxuriantly bouncy locks. Meester is the brassy, belligerent Blair Waldorf on TV's "Gossip Girl" and there she often seems to be performing in a slightly different register than the other actors, as if she alone is in on the joke. (There was also her scene-stealing sass and vinegar turn in the recent "Country Strong.")


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Hanna (2011) Review

Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Olivia Williams, Cate Blanchett, Jason Flemyng, Jessica Barden
Writers: Seth Lochhead, David Farr, Joe Penhall, Joe Wright
Distributed by: Focus Features
Genres: Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Official Website: Hannathemovie.com

Hanna has a mildly interesting story at its core, but it’s the techno blasting action sequences that drive its appeal.  It’s fast when it moves, but it drags when it gets dramatic.  It’s also astounding the level of violence you can squeeze into a PG-13 film these days.   It’s true; if you stay away from potty mouth humor and blatant sexual imagery, you can dodge an R rating even with this much blood and mutilation.

Hanna tells the story of a sixteen year old girl of the same name who has been raised by her father Erik to be an assassin.  Unknown to her, she is more than just a mal-adjusted young killer who’s spent the better part of her young life in the Arctic Circle with her father training -  she’s also the product of a government project led by a ruthless CIA operative named Marissa.   Seeking to make the perfect soldier, the program she leads deals with DNA splicing into embryos and implanting them.  The project is ultimately closed by the government and all products eliminated except for Hanna who manages to escape at age 2 under her father’s protection.  When Hanna decides to expose herself to the world, Marissa is flung back into damage control as she seeks to shut her down and close the project once and for all.


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The Way Back (2010)

The Way Back is a robustly made picture, heartfelt, well executed with an exhilarating sense of reach and narrative ambition. Where it falls down is a lack of personal intensity to match the spectacle. There is nothing that interesting to discover about Janusz, and nothing that interesting for him to discover about himself; even the secrets disclosed about the other escapers don't have much of an impact on the group dynamic. Well, this isn't an overwhelming problem. Weir has put together a good film – oddly, though, considering its scale, it feels like a rather small one.

this is an amazing movie. With his great cast, thrilling adventure, impressive settings and plot that teaches us a lot about human survival skills, director Peter Weir (Master and Commander (2003) and The Truman Show (1998)) is likely, with The Way Back (2010), to garner Oscar nominations.

The movie’s source of inspiration is the 1956 book The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, by Slawomir Ravicz – the action is tough, introducing us to the gulag in 1940 Siberia, which is full of dying men. Seven of them decide to escape into the wilderness, preferring to die free, not as prisoners.

the men walk 10,000 kilometres through Siberian frozen forests, across Mongolian plains and the ruthless Gobi desert, to reach Tibet and then India.

Brilliantly interpreted by Jim Sturgess, Janusz is a Polish soldier caught by the Red Army, convicted as a spy and sent to the Siberian camp. Next to him is Mister (Ed Harris), an American arrested while working for the Moscow Metro; Valka (Colin Farrell), an Urki inside the Gulag; Tamasz (Alexandru Potocean), an artist who sells drawings of naked women; Kazik (Sebastian Urzendowsky) who is only 17 and suffers night blindness due to lack of proper food; Latvian priest Voss (Gustaf Skarsgard) and humorous Yugoslav Zoran (Dragos Bucur).

Along the way, they encounter a woman, Irena (Saoirse Ronan) who teaches them the need to know and care for each other – each has his own drama and heavy past, but learns about his comrades and, above all, how to act like a team in facing danger.

The movie is an odyssey of ‘becoming’ – humour, life and death, power and will – the will to eat wood in order to survive and to be a team in the frozen forests of Siberia.

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The Mechanic Movie review

The Mechanic
A; Action
Dir: Simon West
Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland

Foster acts as the perfect counterfoil to Statham's cold, calculated killer. Where Statham's Bishop lives by a code, Foster's Steve has no such hangups. The action scenes are numbingly effective, right from the big bangs to the hand-to-hand combats. If hardcore action is your kind of thing, you'll like it. This one's a sleepwalk for Jason and you see that, but it's Foster who compels him to bring his A-Game. Thankfully, there's no cheery repartee that gets this to degenerate into a buddy flick. Thankfully. There's clever dialogue and Also at 90-odd minutes, its quick, precise and done with.

The Mechanic is a no holds barred action film with a barebones plot and dialogue written for the sole purpose of setting up the next over-the-top action sequence. All that's necessary to know about The Mechanic is that Arthur Bishop (Statham) kills people for a living, earning big time paydays for each target he knocks off. He's efficient at his job, creative with his kills, and for the most part it appears the people he's hired to murder are scumbugs.

After being given a job to take out his mentor, Harry (who was apparently swindling money from the company and set up a team of Arthur's cohorts to be slaughtered), Arthur winds up taking Harry's rebel without a cause son, Steve (Foster), under his wing to teach him the ropes. Steve's got a mean streak a mile long and is driven by the need for revenge, but also simply by the thrill of the kill. As Arthur shows him how to kill for a living, Steve proves to be a quick learner - although he prefers messy methods when stealth and a quick kill would be safer.

 

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The Eagle (2011) Movie Review

Twenty years after the fabled Ninth Legion marched north to destruction, the son of the legion’s commander is posted to Britain in his turn. Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) has long dreamed of restoring his family’s honor through military service. When he is unwillingly mustered out because of a debilitating leg wound, he fixes instead on a seemingly impossible task: go north, far beyond Hadrian’s Wall to the land of the bloodthirsty Picts, to recover the eagle that was the standard of the lost legion. His only companion will be his new slave, a Briton named Esca (Jamie Bell) who owes Marcus his life
“The Eagle” is a story about Roman conquest, and as you can imagine, there are some prominent battle sequences. Overall these scenes look like leftovers from the opening battle from “Gladiator”, except with all of the violence missing. You see swords swinging, but the film cuts away before the blades actually slice through anything, and then you’re on to the next Centurion about to hack into someone, and the same thing happens. There are no causal connections at all. It’s as if, in every moment, a handful of frames have been lost. You could watch these fights and say that with all of these armed attacks, you never see anyone get injured. Not only are there no consequences, but this approach also gives the film a jagged, uneven feel, that makes it jarring to watch. Action is the only thing that could have saved “The Eagle”, but for a movie marketed on the epic action movie platform (you can see direct lifts from “Gladiator”, “Braveheart”, and “Lord of the Rings”, among others), there is woefully little of it. The weakest parts of the film are the acting and the story, and those take up the vast majority of the nearly two-hour run time.


The film is well directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play) and well written. Consider the short opening sequence that serves as preamble to the main story. It efficiently and adroitly establishes the setting, introduces Marcus (personality, professionalism, family background), and deftly works in details that bring place, character, and culture to life. The sequence culminates in a thrilling action set-piece that further illuminates the hero’s character and not incidentally demonstrates the Britons’ fury and Rome’s military advantage.

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Footloose

Classic tale of teen rebellion and repression features a delightful combination of dance choreography and realistic and touching performances. When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock.

Director: Craig Brewer

Producer: Neil Meron

Language: English

Genere: Drama, Family, Music, Romance

Release Date: 1st April 2011

Cast	Credit
Kenny Wormald	Ren
Julianne Hough	Ariel
Dennis Quaid	Reverend Moore
Miles Teller	Willard
Andie MacDowell	Vi Moore
Producers	Credit
Neil Meron	Producer
Craig Zadan	Producer
Dylan Sellers	Producer
Brad Weston	Producer
Dean Pitchford	Executive Producer
Production Companies	Credit
Paramount Pictures	Paramount Pictures
Writer	Credit
Craig Brewer	Screenwriter
Choreography	Credit
Jamal Sims	Choreography

Source Code

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he's ever known, he learns he's part of a government experiment called the "Source Code," a program that enables him to cross over into another man's identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

Director: Duncan Jones

Producer: Mark Gordon

Language: English

Genere: Drama, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Release Date: 1st April 2011

Cast	Credit
Jake Gyllenhaal	Captain Colter Stevens
Michelle Monaghan
Vera Farmiga
Jeffrey Wright
Producers	Credit
Mark Gordon	Producer
Philippe Rousselet	Producer
Jordan Wynn	Producer
Gordon Kaywin	Executive Producer
Production Companies	Credit
Summit Entertainment	Summit Entertainment
Writer	Credit
Ben Ripley	Screenwriter

Flash Point (2007) Movie Review

Hong Kong Police Inspector Jun Ma (Donnie Yen) is a baaaaad man. How bad? When we first see him, he’s gotten news that a suspect he has been looking for has resurfaced in a gym. Ma proceeds over to the gym, gets in the ring with the suspect, and beats the living Jesus out of him after verbally relating his joy that the chump has finally resurfaced. Later, after he is reprimanded by his superiors for excessive force, a list of complaints that is an arm long, he demands an ending to the proceedings, before chiding them for wasting an hour of his time. This results in his demotion to the police force’s music department. Mind you, not that that’s going to stop him.

The plot, such as it is, follows Yen’s Jun Ma and his partner, Wilson (Louis Koo) as they go after a trio of vicious Vietnamese gangsters who are also brothers. Wilson has gotten in good with the baddies, and when we first meet him, Wilson further strengthens his street cred by throwing a bottle of wine in Ma’s face. As the case against the brothers are slowly created, Wilson realizes that his position within the organization is a precarious one, especially when the Vietnamese begins a war with the Hong Kong Triad, as well as their own benefactors. And as we all know from all our years of watching Hong Kong movies about undercover cops, bad things tend to happen to them. Sorry, Wilson, it was nice knowing ya, chum.

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Sucker Punch (2011) Movie Review

Sucker Punch is Snyder's barely legal wet dream. It's a film with the vision of a teen boy excited by the Victoria's Secret catalog and confused by his burgeoning sexuality. I would take this even farther but there's still a lot to get to.

Set during the 1950s, Sucker Punch centers on a girl we'll come to know as Babydoll (Emily Browning) following the accidental death of her younger sister whom she was trying to save from their step father's sexual advances. In an attempt to hide what really happened, Babydoll's step father commits her to a mental hospital and pays off an orderly (Oscar Isaac) to expedite a lobotomy. But before that can happen, she slips in and out of one imagined reality into the next where she and her new found friends attempt to escape the confines of the institution holding them captive.


This Shutter Island scenario is only the start as reality gives way to layered imagination. We're not talking all out Inception here, but what we first see as a mental hospital gives way to a '50s nightclub and Babydoll is no longer a patient, but one of several lingerie-clad hookers dancing for dollars.

Joining Babydoll are Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Amber (Jamie Chung) and Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish). Equipped with names you'd give a child if you wanted their career paths to end in the arms of Ron Jeremy, this fist of softcore fury teams up to break out.

With the story before you, understand the set up is by no means the problem with this film. Described by Snyder as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns," it's actually the seed for a potentially fun story. It's just too bad this seed grows into a weed. Lacking in any kind of valuable sustenance all you want to do is kill it.

The majority of the film's dialogue, though, belongs to Carla Gugino as the hospital's head psychologist and Oscar Isaac as not only a hospital orderly in the real world, but the equivalent of a pimp in the imagined one. Then there's Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff) as he channels David Carradine's Kill Bill persona as Babydoll's dreamworld guide known only as Wise Man. Glenn is given the distinguishable duty of delivering such clever battle cries as, "Don't ever write a check with your mouth you can't cash with your ass

The Tourist Movie Review

The Tourist
U/A; Drama/Action
Dir: Florian Henkel Von Donnersmarck
Cast: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton

The film begins with the financial crimes unit of Scotland Yard trailing Elise Ward (Angelina Jolie), the most beautiful, confident, and well-attired woman in the world.  Possessing the beauty of a goddess and a look that screams “I will never have sex with you,” Elise is trying to throw the cops off her trail so that they’ll stop chasing her husband, Alexander Pierce, a mob banker who stole billions from his boss.  The British government is in on the chase because 744 million of that amount belonged to them (why the mobster has that money is never explained).  Despite their surveillance, Pierce is still easily able to communicate with Elise through letters and he informs her that she needs to find a stranger with his height and build so that the cops (who don’t know what Pierce looks like) will trail the poor stranger.  It’s an elaborate set-up for what seems like a minor diversion.

Frank Tupelo (Depp) is the kind of tourist you wouldn't accord a second glance to in a place like Venice. Especially, if you're a woman like Elise Clifton-Ward (Jolie).

He is so plain it's almost funny. Elise, on the other hand, gets all kinds of men tongue-tied and weak-kneed in her very presence. Why pick out Frank to get flirty with on a train to Venice, then?

Sab ek soche-samjhe plan ke mutaabik ho raha hai. To cut a long story short, Elise is the lover of Alexander Pearce, a man wanted by Scotland Yard for tax evasion to the tune of billions of pounds. A man, who has changed his face and the only person with a clue, is Elise.
Her instructions are simple: lead the cops trailing her every move on a wild goose chase by making them believe that the man she met on a train is Pearce. Frank is the man she picks for the deception.The cat-and-mouse game continues to its logical or rather dil-logical conclusion.

Hereafter 2010 English Movie Review

• Director: Clint Eastwood


• Screenwriter: Peter Morgan


• Cast: Matt Damon, Cécile De France, Frankie McLaren, George McLaren, Jay Mohr, Thierry Neuvic, Bryce Dallas Howard


• Cinematography: Tom Stern


• Original Music By: Clint Eastwood

Hereafter is interesting in that it’s like watching three separate movies for most of the film. Each of the main characters has their own complete story before their paths cross in the third act. I like this because Marie, Marcus, and George do need each other, and we can see that they do, and that their current life isn’t working out for them. However, it was also distracting. The three stories intertwined without the characters meeting until the end – right as you were getting into one character’s story, it would switch to another. It did this throughout the whole movie until the characters actually met and their story became one.

Hereafter weaves together the story of a famous French news anchor, Marie LeLay (De France), a psychic turned factory worker, George Lonegan (Damon), and a young British boy named Marcus (McLaren). After vacationing off the coast of an island Marie finds herself in the middle of a tropical storm where she’s severely injured and drowns only to come back to life several minutes later. After experiencing such an event, she begins to have visions of the “other side,” which causes her to become an outsider amongst her professional and personal peers.

The story is boring. Perhaps on paper the concept of Hereafter sounds amazing but it doesn’t translate well onto the screen. It’s not visually interesting. The only thing that catches your attention is the opening scene that features a huge tidal wave engulfing a town. Other than that, yawn.