Scribblings

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

We should all be very thankful for the fact that Johnny Depp has kids. If he was childless, he wouldn't have had the need to make a movie for them, which in turn would have meant that there would now be no Captain Jack Sparrow. And even though I'm sure the Pirates movies would still be fun without him, they would have missed that extra element that makes them stand out so much. For Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is without a doubt the most fun you will have in a cinema all summer. It may be a bit less epic than something like Superman Returns, but watching Jack and his friends travel all over the world, ending up in one bad situation after another, will no doubt shiver any moviefan's timbers.

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We should all be very thankful for the fact that Johnny Depp has kids. If he was childless, he wouldn't have had the need to make a movie for them, which in turn would have meant that there would now be no Captain Jack Sparrow. And even though I'm sure the Pirates movies would still be fun without him, they would have missed that extra element that makes them stand out so much. For Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is without a doubt the most fun you will have in a cinema all summer. It may be a bit less epic than something like Superman Returns, but watching Jack and his friends travel all over the world, ending up in one bad situation after another, will no doubt shiver any moviefan's timbers.

Review: Inside Man

Spike Lee is one of the most consistent directors out there. Save for some more uneven pictures like She Hate Me and Girl 6, Lee's body of work is just plain impressive. And while Inside Man is not up there with Do The Right Thing, Clockers and 25th Hour, it is definitely an entertaining and intelligent thriller that does things a little differently than most cookie cutter thrillers you see in theaters nowadays.

Review: Chicken Little (2005)

Watching Chicken Little made me feel like an old man. Before the movie was five minutes old, a whole storyline had already been told, and it took only about ten minutes for another one to be dealt with. This all in the frantic, seemingly unconnected way that you see in many animated tv-shows, but which you don't really expect in a Disney movie. It made me shake my head and wonder how I was going to be able to bear even the slight 75 minutes that this movie was going to last. Luckily, things picked up later on, but Chicken Little is still one of Disney's most unsatisfying animated features in the long history of the studio.

Review: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Can we maybe forget for a second that this is the big 'Gay Cowboy' movie? The publicity that Brokeback Mountain has gotten because of the concept has done the movie a lot of good, propelling it into the spotlights and making it a truckload of money, but the movie deserves to be judged on it's own merits, which it has plenty. Brokeback Mountain is an honest, tender movie about two people struggling with their love for each other in a world that does not accept even the thought that such a love could exist.

Short Review: Four Brothers (2005)

Four Brothers has a lot of potential, but sadly not all of this is realized. The movie, concerning a foursome of adopted brothers intent on finding the men who brutally killed their mother, stars some pretty cool actors, has a premise that could deliver fireworks and an interesting style. Director John Singleton wanted to give his revenge movie the sensibility of a western, and stay far away from the flashy videoclip visuals you see a lot in action movies nowadays. And Four Brothers does have it's moments, like the shoot out at mom's house, where the brothers are surrounded by bad guys, or the final punch up on an icy lake. Problem is that a lot is left in the dark, some of the actors are not at their best (Mark Wahlberg being more annoying that intriguing) and the movie does not have the emotional oomph you would expect from a revenge-movie. Fun to waste 100 minutes with, but instantly forgettable.

***

Review: Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

For some reason I missed this movie when it came out in the cinema, but now that I have seen it on DVD I can see that this was a mistake. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit is one of the most fun movies I have seen in a long time. It has an original story, great characters and great settings, and if it walks away with the Oscar for Best Animated Movie this year, that would be well deserved.

5 Movies in 5 Minutes: Saving Steve Martin's reputation

It will be hard to miss Steve Martin this weekend, since his new comedy The Pink Panther is being hyped through the roof. A good moment to look back at Martin's career, and looking at his filmopgraphy at IMDB made me realize that the man has been in a lot of really bad and (even worse) really average movies. Movies like Housesitter, Father of the Bride 2, Bringing Down the House, Sgt. Bilko and Mixed Nuts can all be buried in a deep pit somewhere in the desert (maybe somewhere close to those millions of copies of Atari's ET videogame), and nobody would miss them. Since the reviews of The Pink Panther are also rather negative, it would almost make you forget he actually used to make some really good movies. Time to dig out five of those up, then.

Two new reviews added

The stream of new reviews continues (okay, not really a stream anymore, but a trickle at the very least) with reviews of the movies Prime and The Replacements. We saw Prime in the sneak preview last week and had an unexpected blast with it, while The Replacements was on TV a few days later. I have already seen that movie several times (own it on DVD actually) but I could not stop myself from putting down the remote and watching it again.

REVIEW: The Chronicles of Narnia (2005)

Although I cannot recall ever reading the Narnia-books, the basics behind the story are familiar. I'm pretty sure I heard about that mysterious wardrobe that leads to the wonderful land of Narnia someday, but maybe it's a good thing I didn't read the books as a kid. With my wild imagination I would probably have spent hours in every closet in our house, hoping that somehow I could also make my way to Narnia. And don't even doubt that I would do that, because I jumped on plenty of pictures after seeing Mary Poppins! I think every kid of that impressionable age will love this movie version of the book, which answers all the questions about what a land like Narnia would look like in real life.

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Review: Millions

Danny Boyle's latest movie, Millions, plays around a bit with the idea of what would happen when one day you find a big bag full of money. It's a concept that has been the basis for many a slapstick comedy, but Boyle takes the premise and turns it into a surprisingly deep family movie that lingers in your mind long after the credits have rolled.