Sunday, May 29, 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides

What's wrong with Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides?

Weak plot.
It takes place on land. Pirate ships are either in bottles or get destroyed very quickly.
Flame throwers in place of cannon balls.
Jack Sparrow's face in close-up way too many times.
Dark, muddy cinematography. I hear it's worse in 3D.
Poor editing.
Sloppy makeup. Though I'm guessing eye liner was a big line item.
No chemistry between the characters.

What's right with Pirates of The Caribbean : On Stranger Tides.

All performances are fine, even though the poor actors had nothing to work with. Geoffrey Rush really shines.
The score is still strong.
Judi Dench and Keith Richards' appearances serve little purpose but window dressing, but it's still nice to see them.

Wish this list was longer.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Hesher

I had heard that Hesher was about smoke and fire and blowing things up. I was not prepared for a gloves-off look inside the heads of the grieved. Dramatic , violent and vulgar. I have never seen such an introspective look at grief. Well done.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Thor

When I saw the trailer for Thor, I thought it looked very disjointed. The God of Thunder in a fish-out-of-water story set in the real world was fine, but the Asgard stuff just didn't do it for me. When the reviews started to come in so positive, I figured I'd give it a go. As I watched, all I could think was, "this is one crazy-ass ride." The story worked, the special effects were great and Chris Hemsworth pulled off a very charming Thor. I had a good time with this movie.