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damn, can't wait to see it...
Awesome movie. The ending will surprise you, but...
God damn mother ing cliffhanger
Pirates 3 next summer...
damn, can't wait to see it...
Kick Ass!!!
Can't wait to see it.
July 7, 2006
MOVIE REVIEW
'Pirates of the Caribbean': Eat My Jetsam, Davy Jones
By A. O. SCOTT
AT first glance, it seems like a pretty good deal. You put down your money still less than $10 in most cities and in return you get two and a half hours of spirited swashbuckling, with an all-star three-way battle of the cheekbones (Orlando Bloom vs. Keira Knightley vs. Johnny Depp) and some extra-slimy computer-generated imagery thrown in at no additional cost.
But there's a catch, as there usually is. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" is not just a movie. It's a glistening, sushi-grade chunk of franchise entertainment, which means that maximal enjoyment of it comes with certain obligations. It is the second episode in what will be at least a trilogy the third installment is scheduled for release next summer and full appreciation of its whirligig plot will depend on thorough acquaintance with the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" picture, conveniently available for purchase on DVD. And since "Dead Man's Chest" brazenly dispenses with the convention of an ending it's pretty much all middle you will, by virtue of buying that ticket, have committed yourself to buying another one a year from now if you're the least bit curious about how the whole thing turns out. By then, chances are good that you will have forgotten most of what happened in "Dead Man's Chest," so you'll have another disc to add to the shopping cart.
The question is: Is it worth it? The same thought probably crosses the minds of Disney theme-park vacationers as they endure endless lines for the ride on which the movies are based, but the notion is quickly banished because nobody likes to feel like a sucker. By a rational calculation of time and money yours and the untold millions invested by Disney, the producer Jerry Bruckheimer and others the answer is probably no. But hey, this isn't about that, right? It's about fun. You're there to have fun. Fun for the family. Fun for the kids. Fun for everyone. So shut up and have fun.
And you probably will, even if it's hard to shake the feeling that you've been bullied into it. Gore Verbinski, the director, has an appropriate sense of mischief, as a well as a gift, nearly equaling those of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, for integrating CGI seamlessly into his cinematic compositions. What is curious about the recent crop of high-tech blockbusters is how seriously they take themselves, and unlike, say, "Superman Returns," "Dead Man's Chest" cannot be called pretentious. It makes no claims to being about good and evil, the difficulty of saving the world in the modern era, or the inner lives of any of its characters.
Instead, it sends Elizabeth Swann (Ms. Knightley) and Will Turner (Mr. Bloom), their wedding day ruined in an opening sequence that seems to pay tribute to the old Guns N' Roses "November Rain" video, on a search for the pirate captain Jack Sparrow (Mr. Depp). Jack, as usual, finds himself in all kinds of trouble, pursued not only by agents of the British crown, but also by an undead, squid-faced mariner, the famous Davy Jones, who commands a ghoulish crew of half-human, half-aquatic creatures. These sailors are like the cast of "SpongeBob SquarePants" or the menu at a seafood restaurant come to life: Night of the Living Bouillabaisse.
One of them, played by Stellan Skarsgard with a starfish embedded in his face, is Will's long-lost father, a development that adds a gelatinous morsel of father-son pathos to the stew of plots and subplots cooked up by the screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Davy Jones himself, meanwhile, speaks in the sinister whisper of Bill Nighy, though it is his swaying mass of facial tentacles that most viewers will remember.
And there are other memorable bits and pieces, visual highlights of a movie with no particular interest in coherence, economy or feeling. Ms. Knightley is, once again, a vision of imperial British pluckiness, with an intriguing dash of romantic recklessness that surfaces toward the end. Mr. Bloom, as is his custom, leaps about, trying to overcome his incurable blandness, and is upstaged by special effects, musical cues, octopus tentacles and pieces of wood. Naomie Harris turns up for a few scenes of hammy voodoo, and Mackenzie Crook and David Bailie contribute some proletarian slapstick. Most of the other members of the first movie's cast show up again, sometimes in surprising cir stances.
The franchise, of course, belongs to Jack Sparrow, and to Mr. Depp. Because this is a sequel, the role is no longer the splendid surprise it was in 2003, when "The Curse of the Black Pearl" charmed audiences and disarmed critics on its way to the third-best domestic box-office gross of the year. But the best parts of "Dead Man's Chest" confirm Jack Sparrow as the most viable Disney cartoon character in quite some time, though his anarchic insouciance has more in common with the work of Chuck Jones or Tex Avery. Mr. Verbinski, for his part, grasps the kinship between today's computer-assisted filmmaking and the hand-drawn animation of old, which lies in the freedom to revise the laws of physics at will. Two sequences in particular stand out, and would stand alone nicely as shorts: I will always think of them as "Fruit Kebab" and "Runaway Hamster Wheel."
But the easy delight that such flights of visual fancy inspires is crowded and blocked by all the other stuff going on in this long, ungainly movie, which for all its busy, buzzing parts, is incapable of standing on its own. It batters you with novelty and works so hard to top itself that exhaustion sets in long before the second hour is over. By next summer, I suppose, we'll all be rested and ready for more.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some violent action scenes, and a few moments of gruesome creepy-crawly movie horror.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Opens today nationwide
Directed by Gore Verbinski; written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, based on characters created by Mr. Elliott, Mr. Rossio, Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert from Walt Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean"; director of photography, Dariusz Wolski; edited by Craig Wood and Stephen Rivkin; music by Hans Zimmer; production designer, Rick Heinrichs; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer; released by Walt Disney Pictures. Running time: 145 minutes.
WITH: Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow), Orlando Bloom (Will Turner), Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Swann), Stellan Skarsgard (Bootstrap Bill), Bill Nighy (Davy Jones), Jack Davenport (Norrington), Kevin R. McNally (Gibbs), Jonathan Pryce (Gov. Weatherby Swann), Naomie Harris (Tia Dalma), Tom Hollander (Cutler Beckett), Lee Arenberg (Pintel), Mackenzie Crook (Ragetti), David Bailie (Cotton), David Schofield (Mercer) and Martin Klebba (Marty).
Also, if you have the DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean 1, you should definitely watch it before you go see Pirates 2. It makes the movie a lot better, and there are some jokes in the second movie that are based on the events in the first movie.
how can you feel like a sucker for owning something you really like and enjoy.
this guy really wants to hate it but he can;t cause it;s too good.
maybe he just doesn't like Series?
One out of 4 stars.
It will probably do OK in $$$, but it sure sounds like it's mostly a special effects movie, the surprise of Depp/Sparrow's character is gone, the story is weak, and won't be completed until POC/III, if anyone cares by then.
I'll wait for it on cable in a few months.
Last edited by boutons_; 07-07-2006 at 06:59 PM.
I will go see it. Depp is the bomb.
blech.
Come up to McKinney and watch it for $2.50. Sure, the theatre's old, but the AC's cold.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movi...tes/index.html
EW review: 'Pirates' a Bermuda Triangle of bad
Arrrgh! Sequel a wild ride that leads nowhere
By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Thursday, July 6, 2006; Posted: 2:22 p.m. EDT (18:22 GMT)
(Entertainment Weekly) -- I was wrong to be so harsh on "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" when it steamed into port three years ago.
The original is a thing of balletic grace, theatrical richness of character, and self-effacing economy of action when compared with the shapeless, weightless, endless "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." The sequel is a version 2.0 that, in its final minutes, portends a future 3.0 of such necessarily staggering, ostentatious extravagance as to bankrupt all but the most iron-walleted of Hollywood producers.
Yes indeed, "Pirates" 2.0 is a theme ride, if by ride you mean a ish contraption into which a ticket holder is strapped, overstimulated but unsatisfied, and unable to disengage until the operator releases the restraining harness.
The barely intelligible plot hardly matters, except insofar as young sweethearts Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are once again thwarted from, as they say in classic pirate movies, getting it on. This time what stands between the two photogenic romantic leads is bluster from a new villainous British prig-in-a-wig, some twitty adult who demands that Will do some impossible thing or another to earn his freedom.
Meanwhile, Jack (the louche weirdness now ratcheted up by the one-of-a-kind Mr. Depp so that jumpin' Jack is an exotic "Cage aux Folles" bird of even fancier lip twitches, wrist curls, and rouged feathers) owes a debt to the underworldly lord of the waterlogged, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). And Jones commands a ship of dead fools disfigured with pulsating, curling, slimy goiters and squid-like protuberances.
This army of the deep suggests the very picture of ick by teen standards, conjured through the very fanciest of special effects; the clattering skeletons of the original "Pirates" look positively minimalist by comparison.
Anyway, as Jack, Will, and Elizabeth work cooperatively, the makers of "Dead Man's Chest" hurl obstacles in the trio's way with the tenacity -- and undifferentiated agitation -- of shipboard monkeys. Clash after calamity after jokey mishap ensues, with time enough for many of the original secondary players to cash their own paychecks.
But this is where the cheat between sensation and satisfaction comes in, a subs ution only likely to become more commonplace as the "Pirates" franchise becomes the very model of modern studio brand extension.
Without character, where's the consequence? Without consequence, where's the joy? Without an artistic stake in eliciting joy (or sadness, or concern, or something other than a glazed giggle at Depp's finery), there's nothing to keep producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and their screenwriting galleymates from piling on another big false ending, and another, and another, "Caribbean" without end, until a pummeled audience begs for a toilet break and, for mercy's sake, a real conclusion.
Discounting adrenaline rush, fright, nausea, and relief as evidence of dramatic effect, there are no consequences in a theme-park ride: You get on, you get jiggled, you get off. Maybe you even ask for another go-round, because it feels so good when the jiggling stops.
The difference is, a ride runs a few minutes, while "Dead Man's Chest" cranks for what feels like an infernal eternity.
EW Grade: D+
I saw the film today.
I could go see it again while it is in theaters, which rarely is the case for me.
I didn't know that angels could fly so low!I saw the film today.
I could go see it again while it is in theaters, which rarely is the case for me.
Would you like to go see a movie with me?
What holds the towel up when she gets out of the shower?
It's projected to make 115 million over the three day weekend.
I just got back from seeing it. It was really good
Ehhhhhhhhh
Gat damn, Keira is hot. Just say her name out loud. "Keira" Just rolls off the tongue. Sssexxy.
Normally anorexic chicks are disgusting to me, but I dont care if she weighed 10 pounds. She's one fine british peice of arse.
I could gawk at that skinny body all day.
I guess the pictures don't come any bigger than that....
Her face is gorgeous ... it's just that it looks like if there was a strong wind gust she'd be sent flying.
What's the opposite of a butterface?
Who cares? She's the hottest youngest chick, and has held that le for like 2 or 3 years now.
I think that is a record, for my lifetime.
The mates on the Flying Dutchman are pretty slimy. Not really a date movie or something you would want to see before/after eating a spaghetti dinner.
I prefer Scarlett Johansen and her curves.
Any movie with Johnny Depp is worth seeing, I'll definitely go see this. I am disappointed with the idea of a cliff-hanger until next summer, that sucks.
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