Pirates: Dead Man's Chest reviews

Reza
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Post by Reza »

Penelope wrote:
Nik wrote:What the heck is with the fuss over Knightley? I'm not trying to be cruel but she's as crusty, plain and boring as they come.

And I don't mean to be cruel, but she really, really needs to start eating.
I agree. Pretty but anorexic! That Vanity Fair cover was a real turn-off. Like looking at a skinless lizard!
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Post by Reza »

Nik wrote:And I really don't get the Keira Knightley fuss. She's not even delightful and witty in interviews the way we've come to expect our British actors to be. She seems just as dull and ditzy as her American counterparts. I wish she'd just go away.

Actually Orlando Bloom should be asked to go away. At least Keira is pretty to look at. Bloom, although ''pretty'' as well (although that may not be a good thing in his case considering he appears to be aiming at the opposite sex), has such an acute case of blandness on screen that one wonders why he keeps getting parts.

Bloom's best performance on film was while getting f****d by Jude Law in a brief scene in Wilde with the famous writer sitting on the sidelines and observing! Although if you blink you might even miss that.
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Post by Penelope »

Nik wrote:What the heck is with the fuss over Knightley? I'm not trying to be cruel but she's as crusty, plain and boring as they come.
And I don't mean to be cruel, but she really, really needs to start eating.
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Post by Nik »

VanHelsing wrote:
Penelope wrote:Actually, the one I most liked in this new film was Jack Davenport, who finally got to have some fun.


That's great to know. Now, I'm very much looking forward to see this this weekend even though I loathe Bloom & Knightley. I wished different actors were in their roles.
Agreed. Although at least Bloom is hot. What the heck is with the fuss over Knightley? I'm not trying to be cruel but she's as crusty, plain and boring as they come.
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Post by Nik »

OscarGuy wrote:None of my friends liked her in this.

I can't understand your dislike of Depp in this performance. I think the hype over it may have colored your judgement because he was terrific in this first one. It was a completely original performance with depth and entertainment. There's a reason he got so much attention because he was good.
Oscar Guy, I like Depp and in my original post I DID say that his performance was entertaining. But that does not equal great acting for me. It was scenery chewing ham - good ham yes, but ham nevertheless. If entertaining and over the top were automatically synonymous with great acting, then John Lithgow in television's "3rd Rock from the Sun" would have to be the greatest performance of all time by anyone anywhere in ANY medium.

And you're kidding about attention indicating quality right? I mean lots of performances get attention - especially from the Academy - and are still unworthy (usually over the top ones or superficial impersonations like Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump", Jamie Foxx in "Ray", Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind", Angelina Jolie in "Girl, Interrupted" or Renee Zellweger in "Cold Mountain.")

BJ, I do agree though that Depp is better in "Pirates" than the dreadful "Finding Neverland." At least he was awake and buzzed in "Pirates." And yes it does seem as if he is ina completely different film from the dull Bloom and Knightley.
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Post by VanHelsing »

Penelope wrote:Actually, the one I most liked in this new film was Jack Davenport, who finally got to have some fun.
That's great to know. Now, I'm very much looking forward to see this this weekend even though I loathe Bloom & Knightley. I wished different actors were in their roles.
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Post by The Original BJ »

I've always been mixed on Depp as Jack Sparrow, in this film and the first. On one hand, I admire that he takes what might have been simply a stock action hero role and does truly make it his own. And although I think an Oscar nomination went too far, part of me at least appreciates that it was clearly the originality that Depp brought to the performance, not simply the nature of an Oscar-bait role, that got him nominated. (He'd pull off that trick the next year.) Depp also breathes plenty of life and humor into a franchise that I've found intermittently amusing but rather bloated, with incredibly drawn-out action sequences (witness the never-ending Leviathan attacks), and at least in film two, an absolutely gobbledygook plot.

And yet while Johnny Depp may be acting in a better film, particularly when compared to the absolutely leaden Bloom and Knightley, it's clear that he is acting in ANOTHER film, something I can't help but think is a pretty big problem. Depp's weird swagger and odd facial expressions may be the most entertaining things on screen, but his hamming can't really be contained in these structurally and tonally awkward films. And like most everything in the Pirates pictures, it becomes too much of a good thing; after about minute 90 in both pictures his weirdness starts to become gratingly repetitive, as if the film can't harness his performance to any good use, so it simply gives us more of it.

And Nik, you are certainly right. Depp is entertaining in the Pirates pictures, but it saddens me that people have come to see this pretty empty performance as a pinnacle of film acting. (That said, I'd take Jack Sparrow any day over J.M. Barrie. At least Depp was doing SOMETHING in the Pirates films, not just sleepwalking.) I used to love Depp, but his recent commercial popularity has rather bafflingly come with a sharp downturn in the quality of his performances.
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Post by Penelope »

I actually liked Keira better in this film than in the first. Perhaps because most of her scenes were opposite the energetic Depp rather than the dull Bloom.

Actually, the one I most liked in this new film was Jack Davenport, who finally got to have some fun.
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Post by OscarGuy »

None of my friends liked her in this.

I can't understand your dislike of Depp in this performance. I think the hype over it may have colored your judgement because he was terrific in this first one. It was a completely original performance with depth and entertainment. There's a reason he got so much attention because he was good.
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Post by Nik »

HORRID. I actively disliked the first one and this one is no better or worse. Yeah yeah Depp is the best thing in it but really is that saying much? I was baffled that his entertaining but little else performance in the first film warranted such attention. And it's sad that after any number of fine performances in his career, it's crap like this and "Finding Neverland" that the Oscars respond to.

And I really don't get the Keira Knightley fuss. She's not even delightful and witty in interviews the way we've come to expect our British actors to be. She seems just as dull and ditzy as her American counterparts. I wish she'd just go away.
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Post by OscarGuy »

Oddly enough, my group had an opposite reaction.

Most of the people who watched it with me didn't like it as much as the first and were rather disappointed with the lack of plot and performance.
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Post by Penelope »

Reza wrote:Is Depp still doing a Keith Richards impersonation?
Yes, it's still Keith Richards crossed with Pepe le Pew.
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Post by Reza »

Is Depp still doing a Keith Richards impersonation?
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Post by Penelope »

We already are seeing that this movie is huge at the box office; and, trust me, word of mouth is going to be great: everybody in my group either liked it equally to the first or liked it even more.

My opinion: it has the same flaws as the original--some really sluggish sections--and some new flaws--everything that worked in the first film is ratcheted up to the nth degree, making it a bit bombastic at times. But, I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the ride, er, film. Verbinski has finally learned how to cut action sequences so that they make sense, and there are two such sequences (both, interestingly, set on land) that are joyously fun. It's definitely going to be the highest grossing film of the summer, and I fully expect (and think it deserves) Oscar nods for Visual Effects, Sound, Make Up, and, why not, Costume Design and Art Direction.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sorry for the delay -- had some trouble getting the Variety site to load.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest


A Buena Vista release of a Walt Disney Pictures presentation in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Produced by Bruckheimer. Executive producers, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Bruce Hendricks, Eric McLeod. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Screenplay, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, based on characters created by Elliott, Rossio, Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert, and on Walt Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Jack Sparrow - Johnny Depp
Will Turner - Orlando Bloom
Elizabeth Swann - Keira Knightley
Bootstrap Bill - Stellan Skarsgard
Davy Jones - Bill Nighy
Norrington - Jack Davenport
Gibbs - Kevin R. McNally
Gov. Weatherby Swann - Jonathan Pryce
Pintel - Lee Arenberg
Ragetti - Mackenzie Crook
Cutler Beckett - Tom Hollander
Tia Dalma - Naomie Harris
Captain Bellamy - Alex Norton
Cotton - David Bailie
Marty - Martin Klebba
Mercer - David Schofield

By TODD MCCARTHY

Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride may have been improved, but the film franchise has been downgraded with this first of two sequels to the 2003 popcorn smash. As with the two "Matrix" follow-ups, which were shot back-to-back like the second and third "Pirates" entries, there is a sense of bloat and where-do-we-go-from here aimlessness to this unconscionably protracted undertaking. As with the "Matrix" pictures, however, public anticipation is such that nothing can stop "Dead Man's Chest" from filling up with B.O. gold; pic is like a slot machine that gobbles up the public's money while giving little back, and, somehow, people don't mind.
Even judged strictly as a commercial product, this new effort seems misguided. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer made sure the key players -- Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, as well as director Gore Verbinski and much of the crew -- reboarded for the continued voyage, and no expense has been spared in order to make the effects even more spectacular this time around.

But why wear out the film's welcome with a wearisome two-and-a-half-hour running time when a tight-ship 100 minutes would have insured more constant excitement, not to mention giving exhibitors more showtimes per day?

The first "Pirates," innocuousness and all, became a $654 million-grossing worldwide phenomenon by virtue of a shrewd blend of old-fashioned storytelling tropes and modern push-button thrill-ride construction. But primary viewer affection stemmed from Depp's utterly eccentric rendition of a drunken sailor as an inadvertent hero; pic mainstreamed the actor's appeal to an unprecedented extent while allowing him to keep his cool.

Inevitably, the effect of his wild makeup and costume, mincing manner and carefully calculated unpredictability proves less arresting the second time around. The surprise is gone, but so is the nearly faultless comic timing, not to mention any good lines.

Depp may have been taking risky shots in the dark in creating Jack Sparrow three years ago, but they all felicitously found their mark. This time, the characterization's haphazard nature becomes transparent; even his best moments trigger only giggles, and the fumbling takes what wind there is out of the picture's sails.

Scenario by the returning team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio consists of too many over-elaborated searches by various parties for three items: a not entirely reliable compass, a treasure chest and the key that will open it.

Among those involved in the multiple pursuits is Will Turner (Bloom), imprisoned with his bride-to-be Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) by nefarious East India Trading Co. rep Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) and forced to track down Captain Sparro, who sets sail on the Black Pearl in an attempt to wrest control of the chest from Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), captain of an undead pirate crew capable of considerable nautical mayhem.

Dramatic line consists entirely of connecting the dots between extravagant and aspirationally comic action scenes, which prominently include an escape from cannibals by several men who jointly move in a large viney ball; a three-way sword fight choreographed across an entire island and partly conducted as men peddle the slats of a vast mill wheel as it rolls hither and yon (a gag Buster Keaton would have enjoyed -- and done better), and multiple attacks by a ferocious giant octopus whose grotesque beaky mouth, when finally seen in close-up, is the stuff of Freudian male nightmares.

Still, the f/x highlight is undoubtedly the mossy gang -- Davy Jones' misshapen sailors doomed to a purgatory of servitude on board the Flying Dutchman, a mildewy craft of astonishing speed that functions like a submarine above and beneath the waves. As in a clever cartoon, these barnacled men are each distinctively conceived, from the mate who resembles a Hammerhead shark to the bloke whose head remains half-hidden within a shell. Best of all is Davy himself, whose remarkable visage is festooned with a beard of moving octopus tentacles and whose strength as a singular villain is heightened by Nighy's wily performance.

But the problem with the "Pirates" films, and with this one more than the first, is that there's not a genuine moment in them -- no point of human contact (except, perhaps, for the Herculean efforts of Stellan Skarsgard, behind heavy makeup, to provide hints of a tragic dimension as Will's doomed father); they're baldly concocted, confected, engineered.

"Dead Man's Chest" puts the viewer into a bland stupor, willing to be entertained, and maybe audiences will be, up to a point, by the beautiful actors, sumptuous production values and the stray desires the film may stimulate to go to Disneyland or Las Vegas. These are the odd films that succeed in stirring neither the emotions nor the mind.
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