Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Starring:
Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun-Fat, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport

Director:
Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt, The Ring)

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

Release Date:
May 2007

Synopsis:
As the age of piracy comes to a close, Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle. Our heroes must face Lord Cutler Beckett, Davy Jones and Admiral James Norrington in a titanic showdown that could eliminate the freedom-loving pirates from the seven seas - forever.

My Two Cents:
I’ll start by saying I didn’t watch any of the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies in theaters because I am not a fan of pirates. I don’t care about the way they talk, their treasure stealing, songs, excessive alcohol consumption, and all that other crap pirates are associated with. I do like Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer so I gave the first PotC a shot on DVD.

I remember I watched it with my sister and my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) and they both fell asleep about 2/3 into the movie. Each of them had only fallen asleep once before, my sister with the first X-MEN and my wife with Blade Runner. Curse of the Black Pearl seemed too long and I just didn’t care about any of the characters, especially Elizabeth Swann. Everyone else that saw it loved it, especially my mom. About two years later I rented Dead Man’s Chest and for reasons I have yet to understand I really enjoyed it, along with my wife. The cliffhanger ending did suck, but now I couldn’t wait for part 3.

A few weeks ago I finally rented At World’s End, and although I had fun with a few scenes I was mostly disappointed with the film. This time I almost fell asleep halfway, and I never fall asleep watching movies. The first movie focused a lot on Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann’s romance, and I’m not a romantic fool so I didn’t care for it. The second movie was more about adventuring and had Jack Sparrow in a more important role, and I totally dug that. Now, for part 3, they went back to Will and Elizabeth’s romance, and Sparrow isn’t even in the movie for more than 30 minutes.



I detest Elizabeth Swann and can’t imagine her surviving a day on a pirate ship. She looks so puny and fragile. For reasons that elude me she is all over At World’s End, from start to finish. She is even named King of Pirates, or some shit like that. What the fuck? Now, I do like Will and felt bad that his bride-to-be was being a whore in part 2, but for part 3 he’s more bad-ass and likeable. He literally goes to hell and back for the love of his life. Once Sparrow finally shows up he enjoys plenty of screen time, but there are so many fucking characters that take the simple fun of the first film away.

The final battle after Calypso goes apeshit and the Black Pearl squares off with the Flying Dutchman is awesome. There’s so much shit going on that you lose track of time, but it’s really fun. Too bad the rest of the film is so dull.

The Pirates of the Caribbean series is a giant gold mine for Disney, but I really hope they don’t do a fourth installment or at least wait about 5 years to make it. There is only so much you can do with stinking pirates without milking them dry.

Score:

Movie Review: Meet the Robinsons

Starring:
Angela Basset, Daniel Hansen, Matthew Josten, John H. Ford, Paul Butcher, Laurie Metcalf, Wesley Singerman, Stephen J. Anderson

Director:
Stephen J. Anderson (Journey Beneath the Sea)

MPAA Rating:
G

Release Date:
March 2007

My Two Cents:
Brilliant preteen inventor Lewis creates a memory scanner to retrieve his earliest recollections and find out why his mother gave him up for adoption. But when the villainous Bowler Hat Man steals the machine, Lewis is ready to give up on his quest, until the mysterious Wilbur Robinson shows up on the scene, whisking Lewis to the future to find the scanner. When Lewis meets Wilbur’s family, for the first time in his life he feels at home. They are all wacky and odd, but they love each other and are always together. After a while The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but after Wilbur reveals a mind-shattering secret, it becomes clear Lewis has to go back to his own time. Unfortunately, the Bowler Hat Guy has messed up the past and now the future has changed, bringing chaos and enslavement to the entire human race. Lewis must use his genius and figure out how to save the world, literally.

We’re so used to watching CG movies from Pixar it’s odd to see one from Disney that was produced by a different animation studio. It is based on the 1990 William Joyce book entitled A Day with Wilbur Robinson, but for whatever reason the title was changed for the movie adaptation.



I have to mention that I watched this on Blu-ray, and it looks freaking gorgeous! The textures detail is insane, and everything in the future looks so shiny and delicious. The characters themselves are very cartoony and rubbery, but everything else looks spectacular. This is a terrific transfer that takes full advantage of the 1080p resolution. I love hand-drawn animation, but CG movies like this are something else. This is what HD is for, baby!

While it’s not as fun or interesting as most Pixar’s films like The Incredibles or Toy Story, it’s still good, clean, old-fashioned, warm and fuzzy. There’s all sorts of insane characters and events, like singing frogs, a dinosaur, wacky inventions and a time machine, so kids will not be bored. Adults may not finding as fun, but it’s charming enough and worth watching. After a few dull sequences the movie does pick up and the ride to the end becomes much sweeter than I anticipated.

Score:

Movie Review: Ratatouille

Voice Cast:
Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Brad Garrett, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Brian Dennehy, James Remar, Peter O’Toole, John Ratzenberger

Directors:
Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava

Synopsis:
A passionate rat named Remy yearns for a sip of the good life. Growing up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant owned by a famous chef, Remy inherits a taste for fine food. But his culinary ambitions only anger his practical father, who wishes his son could just eat garbage like every other rat in the colony.

My Two Cents:
I have a weak spot for CG movies, especially if they’re made by Pixar Animation Studios. I was totally blown away by Toy Story back in 1995 and since then I’ve been a big fan of their work. Their movies not only feature state of the art computer generated images, but offer movie fans unique stories, humor and charm every single time. Ratatouille is no exception.

Rats are associated with filth and thievery, so it’s not easy for Remy (voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt) to hide his love for fine food from the rest of his rat colony, especially his father (voiced by Cocoon’s Brian Dennehy), whom all live in the attic of an old woman’s house in France. Unlike the other rats, Remy doesn’t like eating garbage, or the fact that they have to steal it. He has been sneaking, without his father’s permission of course, into the house’s kitchen where he likes to read a cookbook written by the owner of Paris #1 restaurant, Chef Gusteau (voiced by Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett). Remy’s father knows his son has a unique ability to smell ingredients in food, but only approves of this talent if it’s used as a rat poison alert system. Remy’s brother, Emile, is the only one who knows about this, and as Remy tries to show him the wonders of cooking they are spotted by the old lady and all hell breaks lose. The whole colony needs to evacuate and in the process Remy gets lost inside a sewer. Fearing everything is lost, he creates an imaginary friend, Chef Gusteau, who guides him to his restaurant so he can live his dream of becoming a cook.

You see, a while back a jaded food critic gave Gusteau’s restaurant a poor review, causing the chef to fall ill and eventually die. Damn! It went from being a 5-star restaurant to only having 3. Gusteau’s ghost believes Remy can somehow bring glory back to his restaurant, that’s currently run by the grumpy Mr. Skinner (voiced by Ian “Bilbo Baggins” Holm) who wants to move from gourmet food to frozen TV dinners and such using Gusteau’s name.

When Remy accidentally falls inside the restaurant’s kitchen and starts secretly making a delicious soup he is caught by Linguini, the new garbage boy who is a born loser, and is ordered by Skinner to kill the rat. Linguini discovers that Remy not only understands him but is also a fantastic cook. Linguini can’t cook, and Remy can’t waltz into the kitchen to cook, so they figure a way of making Remy control Linguini by hiding in his chef hat and pulling on his hair, moving his arms and legs as he sees fit. All sort of hilarious situations ensue as a result of this.

Like every other Pixar movie, the visuals are stunning. I have to mention that I watched the high-definition Blu-ray version of the film, and although I’m pretty sure the standard-definition DVD looks great, the HD visuals have to be seen to be believed. This is the best-looking Blu-ray movie I’ve seen so far, and I’ve seen plenty. You can see every little detail, from the rat’s individual hairs, to the rich textures of all the food. Unlike live-action Blu-ray films like Pirates of the Caribbean which have occasional dark scenes where grain creeps in, every single frame in Ratatouille looks perfect in all its 1080p glory. Beautiful colors, breathtaking scenery detail, and top-notch animation.

Composer Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible III) created a very nice score that fits the Paris setting as well as the moods of each of the main characters perfectly. It’s never distracting, out of place, or overly repetitive.

The movie is almost 2 hours long, but I was not bored for a single second. Even when there’s not a whole lot going on you’ll still be mesmerized by the details of the backgrounds and the characters. My secret addiction to Food Network’s Iron Chef America helps me appreciate the movie more, although Ratatouille is less about cooking and more about finding your way in life. There’s no reason not to watch this wonderful film. Bon appétit!

Rating: