PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES (2011)
US
Directed by Rob Marshall

CAST:
Johnny Depp - Jack Sparrow
Penelope Cruz - Angelica Malon
Geoffrey Rush - Barbossa

PLOT:
     Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) crosses paths with a woman from his past (Cruz), and he's not sure if it's love -- or if she's a ruthless con artist who's using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn't know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.

REVIEW:
      I'm not going to say that I love the Pirates movies, but I do like them a lot. The first one I found runs a little to slow most of the time and the third one is disjointed too much by putting to much plot in which could have been put into another whole movie. The second movie, Dead Man's Chest, is my favorite of the whole series due to all the characters flaws, as everyones real personalities come out. Plus the Kraken was just awesome! So now we have a whole new batch of movies starting up with this one and we get to see if they can live up to the others.

     Depp's Jack Sparrow has always been the center of the films and that hasn't changed with this one. In fact without Bloom and Knightley in the mix, the film is more concise due to this as it focuses almost all the attention  on Depp, as well as  Rush's character Barbossa, which is the way the other three movies should have been. Sparrow is still the lovable rouge, which should not be changed no matter what and Barbossa is still the pirate that will do anything to get what he wants. Yet it's Ian McShane's Blackbeard that draws the most attention among the three captains in the movie to me. He just commands your attention whenever he shows up, never raising his voice, but still his posture tells his mood, as well the inflection in the way he speaks. I would have loved to see more Blackbeard in other movies yet that won't happen (spoiler ahead) due to he dies toward the end of the film. Cruz's Angelica will thankfully make a decent rival for Sparrow in upcoming films as she's just as fierce as Backbeard and cunning as Sparrow.

     While the first three films had a sense of happy mischief for most of the films, this one starts out this way but changes quickly to one of  menacing and unease. Most of this is due to Blackbeard, yet also Angelica, who is always trying to stay a step ahead of Sparrow which plays more like a deadly game of chess in parts. One of the complaints about the movie is that to many things happen at random and out of nowhere. To me that only happened twice. Once when  Sparrow's father, Captain Teague, again played by Kieth Richards, shows up at just a little to perfect timing, though he truly gets the plot rolling and then when the Spaniards show up at the fountain. Another problem I had with the story is the throw away side story of the missionary man who falls in love with the mermaid. I didn't have no problem with it until the end when the script just left the plot thread dangling and didn't finish it up. I guess they thought the story needed a romance in it.

      While On Stranger Tides isn't a bad film, it doesn't quite hit the mark in spots thanks to the story as there are amazing scenes in the film yet at the same time they don't all connect together correctly. Yet the film has a nice visual style that is different from the previous films. One such scene is when you see Blackbeard for the first time. It's just a shocking image seeing McShane's character all hirsute, with the ends of his beard burning at different parts and smoking, with his eyes almost glowing while his face sits mostly in shadow. On Stranger Tides seems to move much better than most of the original three movies and has just as much humor, even though it's more gallows now, which I love. Most people will see this as the weakest entry in the series, but to me it's a welcome addition to it that takes the characters to different places while exploring Sparrow's past a little bit thanks to the introduction of Angelica.

BEST DEATH:
     Brain surgery by stalactite.

BEST LINE:
     You know that feeling you get when you're standing in a high place... sudden urge to jump?... I don't have it.

FUN FACTS:
      This film is loosely based on the 1988 pirate novel 'On Stranger Tides', by Tim Powers.

     Penelope Cruz was pregnant during the filming of the movie.

     Johnny Depp said he agreed to star in this, before "there was a script or anything".

     As in the movie, the real Blackbeard never actually killed anyone by his own hands he captured.

CASE 39

CASE 39 (2009)
US/CA
Directed by Christian Alvart

CAST:
Renee Zellweger - Emily Jenkins
Jodelle Ferland- Lillith Sullivan
Ian McShane - Det. Mike Barron

PLOT:
     A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected.

REVIEW:
      I usually give horror movies a wide berth to let them get going and try to hit their stride. Some of them just hit it right off the bat and never stop, while some fizzle after the first fifteen minutes. And then there's the ones that wait till the end to get going which by that time you had enough yet you stick with it just to say you did see the whole movie even though you just wanted it to end.  Even when a movie is completely bad, I can usually find something in it to laugh at. It's when a bad movie tries to be more than it is that I get flustered with it. This is one of those movies.

     I must give credit to Jodelle Ferland for doing a decent job as the demon child Lillith Sullivan. It's the little things she does in this that helps sell her character. One scene that stands out is when Bradley Cooper is interviewing her alone and she just ticks her head to the side and just belittles him outright.  It's here that you actually get to see how evil she is. I will say that I could have done without the super-brat routine as she is supposed to be ultimate evil with powers of a demon. Speaking of Bradley Cooper, he did a great job with what he was given. After his interview with Lillith, he comes out haunted and lost. You know he just got his mind screwed with in more ways than one. Too bad they kill him off since he was the best actor in this movie considering what he had to work with. Now we come to Renee Zellweger's "I have no idea what I'm doing here" role. I've never been a fan of Zellweger as I've always seen her as a half rate Joey Lauren Adams who just got a more of a lucky break than she deserved. Here, her "bored get me out this, because it's just a paycheck" attitude in this movie just goes to prove that point even more.

     As for director Christian Alvart, since this was his first true big studio picture, he did fairly well considering the script he had to work with and the bigger name actors. He did have some interesting shots and angles he used but all of that is overshadowed and buried by the script from Ray Wright. It feels as if it was written by a 12 year old emo kid who watched the remake of The Omen and  The Exorcist back to back and had an idea that should have stayed in his head instead on paper. Yes, the first fifteen or so minutes are decent then it goes down hill after Lillith is saved from being a crispy critter in a oven. First thing that hits wrong is that Zellweger's Emily Jenkins asks for custody of un-crispy Lillith and child welfare service grants her temporary custody. I call bullshit on this movie right then and there. I'm a firm believer in suspension of dis-belief, more so in genre films, but this just went too far with that one. Also if this girl is so powerful, as is shown toward the end of this exercise in patience, how is she able to be shoved into a trunk of a sinking car. Then it gets better by showing a gigantic hulk like arm shooting through metal of said trunk to grab at an escaping Zellweger, but yet the demon child cannot rip the trunk to shreds to get out. Yep, that's right. Shitty writing!

     There was a reason why this movie took so long to see the light of day. The movie is just not scary (and no, pumping the sound mix doesn't equal scary). The scares that were there are just "boo" type scares, which are okay, if they were backed up with real scares. But alas, this movie has none, even when it had so many times where it could have been. The studio kept on trying to push this movie back and bury it and for good reason. JeNee said it best when she said she wanted the hour and a half back she lost thanks to this movie and I agree. If you want to see a movie by Alvart go and watch the so much superior Pandorum.

BEST DEATH:
     Ian McShane's expertly placed dog deterrent that goes wrong.

BEST LINE:
     To know what your idea of hell is... and make you live there.

FUN FACTS:
      The movie actually went into production in 2006, but wasn't released in the US until October of 2010.

     Case 39 was released in New Zealand in August of 2009 and opened up at # 12 at the box office there.

     While shooting one of the fire scenes for the movie, a special effect fire got out of control and burned the whole set down, including the studio stage it was built into and almost all of the crew's equipment. Nobody was seriously injured and filming resumed the very next day with equipment being hauled in from all over the world.
To bad the actual film didn't go up in flame as well!