Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates 3 was, unfortunately, one of the not-so-great movies I've seen this year. Great acting yes, but the actors are working with a crappy script and an even worse plot. Jack Sparrow's character has been further distorted from his original personality. And now he's apparently **SPOILER** schizophrenic. Most of the effects were pretty good, but at some points I wondered how they could have come out with such low-grade effects when their budget was so huge. The characters spend most of the movie following a side plot. A SIDE PLOT. and then by the last 30 minutes they get back on track. It had a pretty good ending, but the plot has so many holes it's like...well, just go ask a ninja. Keith Richards was great, Chow Yun-Fat totally sold out, Knightley, Bloom, and Rush are great but, as usual, overpowered by Depp. Go see it because you have to finish out the trilogy, but don't expect anything that will change your life or blow your mind. As one reviewer put it "I wanted to like it, but..." Read the full review at IMDb.com.

Conclusion: It's entertaining if you can try to forget about the plot holes, etc., so go see it.

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of action/adventure violence and some frightening images.

Trivia:

• Captain Barbossa can be seen wearing an Eagle Scout ring in several sequences. This ring signifies that some one in Boy Scouts has earned the highest rank known as Eagle.
• They started filming without a finished script.

1-18-08

J.J. Abrams, the producer of the hit tv show, Lost, is producing a movie, due out 1-18-08 that has generated a huge amount of hype. Those who went to see Transformers may have seen the trailer for this mysterious film which is, as of yet, untitled. The preview featured a home video camera filming a going away party, when suddenly the party is interrupted by an earthquake, or perhaps an explosion. The party-goers run out onto the street. The camera is shaky, people are screaming, running everywhere. Someone screams "I saw it, it's huge!" A fireball comes out of the sky and hits the New York street. It is the Statue of Liberty's head. "1-18-08" flashes on the screen and the trailer is over.

The film reflects Abrams previous projects, like Lost, which has also fueled the most amount of speculation over a tv show. Ever. No title has been given for the film, just a date at the end, 1-18-08. Fans are calling the film "Cloverfield". Abrams is famous for his closed-mouth projects. Actors don't know what part they're auditioning for, they don't even get to read the script. Fans will be kept waiting in breathless anticipation until the day the movie comes out. Two different names for the film, "Monstrous" and "Wreck" were been leaked from the inside, and Abrams promptly changed the title. Abrams has also begun a website: http://www.1-18-08.com/. Fansites have sprung up like crazy, but this is the only official site. Some have speculated that the film is yet another Godzilla movie, but this is impossible since Paramount (who is distributing Cloverfield) doesn't own the rights to Godzilla.

The general storyline seems to be about people trying to survive a monster attack in New York City. The cast has not been officially released, but little-known actors and actresses have been spotted in the trailer. $30 Million is the estimated budget, and it was filmed on location in New York City. Those are really the only official facts known right now and even those are iffy. I look forward to seeing this movie and seeing if my predictions are right.

Either way, I hope Cloverfield can live up to the hype it started. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield for more information about the movie.

Hairspray

As the rest of the movie industry goes down the drain, parents don’t have to worry as long as High School Musical clones keep being made. At least, that’s what I thought before I went to see Hairspray. Even John Travolta and Christopher Walken were no consolation, I had already stubbornly decided that HSM had ruined Hollywood and Hairspray was but a sad, sad clone. Zac Efron’s appearance in Hairspray did nothing but confirm my misgivings.

Much to my surprise, I found myself being entertained and even laughing out loud at this corny adaptation of a stage adaptation of a movie. But what would appear to be a cheesy movie with all the right pieces for a cut-and-paste kid's movie, turns out to be one hell of a winner. My despise for Efron and his High School Musicalness was ripped out from under me as I was actually impressed by his performance. Chris Walken and larger-that-life Travolta make for a hilarious pair, and newcomer Nikki Blonsky isn’t half-bad either. Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley, and Queen Latifah all make equally pleasing appearances. I also especially enjoyed James Marsden’s surprising role in Hairspray. Girls might recognize him from The Notebook, and guys from X-Men.

As out-of-place as it sounds, Hairspray does an excellent job at addressing more than one serious issue in a way that makes people see it in a new light. Boldly taking on racism head-on and showing people not just the damages racial prejudice can inflict, but also showing the good having an open heart and mind can bring. Get ready to be knocked off your feet by this seemingly light film, and sit down for a heavy talk about doing the right thing. Keep an eye out for Efron and Blonsky, they just might surprise you.

Conclusion: Go ahead and see it, because you won't regret it.

Rated PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking.

Trivia:

• The song in the film titled "You Can't Stop the Beat" was nicknamed by some of the actors as "You Can't Stop to Breathe" because of the high tempo of the song and the amount of words to be sung.
  

• Amanda Bynes' character, Penny, is seen constantly eating suckers. Her father, who is a dentist, became worried for Amanda's dental health, as it was estimated she ate about 40 suckers a day. Amanda told him that she wasn't really eating all of them, when in reality she ate them all.

Transformers

Transformers was a pretty good movie. Some parts of the storyline could have been explained better, but on the whole it was entertaining. Shia LaBouf is one of the best young actors I've seen on the screen since Haylee Joel Osment. He completely owns the film. His acting skills are more than impressive, and I am very, very excited to see his next films.

I must say that the special effects for Transformers were absolutely breathtaking. The animation, the texturing, the lighting, everything. To create and animate one of the transformers would be insane. But to bring to life more than eight and then have them fight is absolutely unbelievable.

Humorous and fun to watch, Transformers is a movie for most of the family. The PG-13 rating is a "DER" to parents that says, don't bring your toddler to see a loud, violent movie. But if you want to see some awesome, awesome action with an all-star cast and robots beating each other up, then you've found the right movie.

Conclusion: Funny and exciting, Transformers is pure entertainment.

Rated: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language. (Don't bring kids younger than 13 unless you want to deal with some questions regarding the sexual humor.)

Trivia:

• For the scene where Sam is clinging to a statue at the top of a building, although he wore a safety harness, he was actually on top of the building with no safety net beneath him, so Shia LaBeouf's terror was real.
• The US government supplied planes and assistance to the production.

Live Free or Die Hard

Willis and Long in Live Free or Die

The fourth and last of the Die Hard movies has at last arrived. The quadruplogy has always been a much-loved guys movie, filled with Bruce Willis’ character, John McClane, who’s just a regular Joe Schmo cop trying to save his family from the latest terrorist threat. The wisecracking Willis, his macho/family-man character, and his signature yippekayay have become representative of the American action hero. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Live Free is a sequel worthy of the classic series.

This summer’s blockbusters have so far all featured the return of a much-loved character. The same is true of Live Free or Die Hard, in which John McClane is back with a slew of new comebacks. Willis is at last unabashedly bald in this action flick with not much of a plot, but with plenty of kickbutt stunts that totally make up for it.

Cyber-terrorist, Thomas Gabriel, is a hacker with a mission: destroy the U.S. of A., just to prove he can. His plan is to take out all of America’s technology- communications, utilities, etc, and to create chaos in general everywhere. He gets several other hackers to help him and then has them killed to cover his tracks. Meanwhile, John McClane (Willis) has been sent to retrieve the only hacker still left alive, Matt Farrell (who is played by the endearing Justin Long. Aka “the Mac guy”.) McClane must keep the young hacker alive, in spite of many evil henchmen’s best efforts, because he holds the key to saving the world.

Live Free has plenty of redeeming qualities to make up for the imperfect plot. For one, it’s incredibly, and I mean incredibly, entertaining. McClane runs around shooting up bad guys, dodging flaming cars, and blowing up helicopters, I mean come on, it can’t get much better than that. Countless explosions and ridiculous stunts have a way of retaining their entertaining value.

Willis gives a great performance, and expresses his BA-ness whenever he gets the chance. However, Justin Long very nearly steals Willis’ movie right from under him. His skittish hacker/anti-hero character is beautifully played. Many, many kudos to Long. In addition to these performances, Kevin Smith makes a humorous appearance, and Olyphant’s portrayal of Gabriel is well-done.

Although some of the stunts, like McClane wrestling a fighter jet may represent totally unneeded idiocy, they are nonetheless amusing. The film is filled with political messages on everything from national security to Iraq and terrorism. A must-see summer movie for any fan of old westerns of John McClane’s previous adventures. Be sure you can handle the violence and constant profanity.

Conclusion: The explosions are too cool to miss and the political messages easy enough to forget.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and a brief sexual situation.

Trivia:

• On the traffic monitoring screens showing the created traffic jam ups, some reused footage (armored car turning) from the Italian Job (2003) can be seen.
• The French title translates as "Die Hard 4.0: Return to Hell".

Premonition

Premonition would have to be pretty low on any list of movies I’ve ever seen. The plot is not twisting and interesting, but instead is just purely unintelligible.

One day Sandra Bullock wakes up to find that her husband, Jim, has been killed in a horrific car accident. She and her family are devastated. The next day Jim is alive again, so Bullock figures it’s just a nightmare. Or is it? One day he’s dead, then he’s alive, then it’s his funeral, then he’s alive. What is going on? By this point the audience is so confused, they have lost all interest, they just want to figure out how the crap this movie will resolve itself. Sandra Bullock must race against time and defy fate to save her husband’s life.

Unfortunately, what some are calling a “gripping psychological thriller” is nothing but a confusing jumble of random scenes with Sandra Bullock crying and running away from ominous symbolism like dead birds. Messing around with future/present/past silliness can be pretty difficult. Sometimes if the director knows what he’s doing it can work, but Premonition fails miserably and the audience just ends up at the end of the movie going “What the *&%$?” and wishing it really were all a dream.

Premonition is a pathetic mix of Memento and The Lake House. Sandra Bullock does her best and adds her great acting to the cake mix, but without minor ingredients like a plot and an ending, Premonition comes up lacking. This film barely deserves its one out of five stars. Sandra Bullock is the only thing of value Premonition has to offer.

The Conclusion: Just plain skip it, it's just not worth it.

Rated PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material and brief language.

300

300 is probably the most violent, the most gory film I've ever seen. Another one of Frank Miller's graphic novels (Sin City ring any bells?), 300 is excellent. The acting is excellent. The visual effects are unbelievable, and the CG is breath-taking. The storyline could be stronger, but on the whole, 300 is a film that will blow your mind.

King Xerxes of Persia has conquered all of the known world. All of it except Sparta. King Leonides and 300 Spartans are all that stand in the way of over a million Persians destroying Sparta forever. The Persians descend upon the Spartans, but how long can only 300 soldiers, the world best warriors though they may be, hold up against Persia's millions? Meanwhile, Leonides' wife attempts to convince the counsel to send reinforcements to Leonides.

Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, the movie depicts the epic legend of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which 300 soldiers stood against a vast force of millions. As the legend goes, the 300 inflicted such losses on the Persians, while sustaining minimal damage to their own force, that the Persians gave up.

No hesitation, no retreat, no mercy. For honor, for glory.

King Leonides is played by Gerard Butler, best known for playing the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera with Emmy Rossum. Butler is phenomenal as Leonides, and is probably one of the best, least known actors in the business. Lena Headey plays the Queen and she too is absolutely spectacular. Dominic West is a scheming counsel man, also excellent, and David Wenham is Dilios, equally fantastic. I'm running out of synonyms for "amazing".

Conclusion: If you can stomach the gore and violence, 300 is and absolute MUST-SEE.

Rated R for graphic battle sequences throughout and some sexuality/nudity.

Interesting Trivia:

• The filmmakers used bluescreen 90% of the time, and greenscreen for 10%. They chose blue because it better matched the lighting paradigm (green would have been too bright) and because red garments (a la spartan capes) look better when shot over blue.
  
  
• There were two days of location shooting, which were for the horses that were shot for the 'approaching Sparta' scene.