Hollywood Guff:
Release Date: 05/20/2011
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hr 17 mins
Genre: Adventure
Director: Rob Marshall
Cast: Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane
The
best way to go into Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is to think of
it as the first film in a brand new franchise; a franchise in which mermaids love
men, zombies won’t eat you and a Fountain of Youth exists, but all laws of
logic, reasoning and competent storytelling don’t. Although screenwriters
Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were smart enough to sever the narrative ties to the
first two sequels in their franchise’s fourth outing, the latest swashbuckling
adventure in the series shares most of the same faults its predecessors faced.
Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) steps in for Gore Verbinski in On Stranger Tides, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find his contributions to the already-flashy film that finds our hero Capt. Jack Sparrow (the inimitable Johnny Depp) on the hunt for the fore mentioned fountain. Of course, he’s not the only one looking for eternal life: also in tow are nameless, stereotypical Spaniards, the English crown headed by a reformed Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and Blackbeard, a ruthless pirate who looks and sounds a lot like Ian McShane. Their paths cross on numerous occasions as the story scrambles across the map, culminating in a splashy battle in a magical meadow where Ponce de Leon’s greatest discovery lies.
Less a cohesive story and more a collection of individual set pieces linked together by nonsensical dialogue and supernatural occurrences, the film isn’t all that hard to follow if you don’t strain yourself doing so. The sequence of events collide so conveniently for the characters you can’t help but call the screenplay anything but the result of complacency, while the film itself sails so swiftly from point to point it’s actually a waste of time to dwell on plot holes and motives. Disrupting its momentum (which is one of the few things the film has going for it) is an unwatchable romance between Sam Claflin’s missionary Philip and Syrena (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), one of a handful of murderous mermaids who do battle with Blackbeard’s crew. Their bland courtship will have you begging for Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley to return to the high seas, and that’s saying something.
The all-female fish people are one of a few additions to the Pirates world, but their effect on the film is negligible outside of being the impetus for the coolest action sequence in the picture and perhaps the most unnerving of the series. The others include Penelope Cruz as Blackbeard’s busty daughter Angelica and Stephen Graham as shipmate Scrum. The former feels out of place among the cartoony happenings, but provides much needed sass while the latter fills in for Kevin McNally’s Gibbs for much of the film and is a pleasure to watch for some hammy comedic moments.
As always, however, this is Depp’s show and he continues to put a smile on my face with his charisma and theatrical presence. Even though he’s operating on autopilot throughout, you can’t help but marvel at his energy and enthusiastic output as he literally fuels the fun in the film. The same can be said of Rush, who’s given a meatier and more significant arc this time around. He trades quips with Depp as if they were a golden-age comedy duo, and they remain the most appealing attraction in the franchise. Though he brings an undeniable sense of danger to the picture, I was sadly underwhelmed by McShane’s Blackbeard, a character with such a domineering reputation and imposing look he should’ve been stealing scenes left and right. Instead, I felt he phoned his performance in, though that could’ve been the result of Marshall’s indirection.
No better than the genre-bending original but a slight improvement over Dead Man’s Chest and At Worlds End, On Stranger Tides suffers centrally from lack of a commanding captain. Marshall’s role is relegated to merely on-set facilitator or perhaps liaison between legions of talented craftspeople that make the movie look so good. Whatever vision he had for this venture, if he had a unique take at all, is chewed up and spit out by the engines of the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster factory, rendering the film as mechanical as the ride from which it is based.
'American Idol' Results: And the Final Two Are...It's the cruelest of all Idol eliminations: the one right before the finale. It's when they've built up the top three, treating them like rock gods, taking them to their home towns to meet legions of adoring fans and proud townspeople. They put these kids on top of the world and then in one five-minute segment at the end of the show, rip that fancy rug right out from under them. So who's no longer standing? Well, we don't have an all-girl finale, so that should give you a hint.
That's right, Scotty McCreery, who I believe was told he's never been in the bottom three or two, is the first finalist for season 10 of American Idol. But what about the others? We found Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart waiting anxiously for their fates. It makes sense that it was down to the two ladies. At this point, it really is the splitting factor. You've got Scotty, who's got his unique, deep country timbre and two pretty, blonde girls with big voices, one more soulful and one that's a little more sweet. We could have guessed that it would be down to Scotty and one of the girls, though I had hoped a little for an all-girl finale because I think these two ladies are great. Anyway, as we all waited for the announcement, Ryan finally says the name: Lauren.
Now, I don't know about you, but the incredible tension was palpable 3,000 miles away in my tiny apartment on my tiny television. Lauren, the adorable thing she is, was torn in two directions, trying not to celebrate and squeal that her dreams were coming true while she stood next to Haley whose dreams had just ended. We watched as she tried to hug Haley, who looked like she'd been hit by a freight train. It was actually similar to when James Durbin was eliminated; I think they both thought they were immune, that they'd make it to the end. You could see the disbelief on her face and something a commenter said on one of these recaps came back to me. One person mentioned that Haley seems too cocky. Now this had never bothered me, but there was a certain lack of grace in her exit last night that makes me think maybe there was an element I wasn't seeing. Maybe that's why the judges were so hard on her? Maybe she is too cocky? Well, it doesn't really matter now because her journey is over.
Now before we get to her swan song -- she wisely chose "Bennie and the Jets" and rocked the hell out of it -- I'd like to say that even though I'm a Haley fan, I am very happy with this top two. Lauren is just lovely, she sings beautifully, she's genuine and cute as a button. As for Scotty, he's not an artist I would buy albums from, but I'm aware that his style of music is very popular across the country and he does it well. They both seem like great kids, they're both talented, and they're both so, so young. According to Ryan Seacrest, this is the youngest Idol finale ever; Lauren is 15 and Scotty is 17. I'm not even going to be upset when one of them loses -- making it to the finale is almost a guarantee for a record deal, especially with two folks who are already prepackaged for success like these two -- but I will say, quietly, that I hope it's Lauren.
'Fast
Five' blows the doors off the competition!
Universal’s Fast
Five, the fifth installment of the massively successful Fast and Furious franchise
hit the streets with the biggest opening weekend of the year thus far. An $83.6
million haul gave the film pole position this weekend on the box office chart
and was the biggest debut of the franchise. Fueled by $8.3 million worth of IMAX
powered tickets, the giant screen format put the film over the top and accounted
for 10% of the weekend sales. This latest Fast and Furious takes the classic formula
and turns up the heat with a reunited cast and the addition of Dwayne The Rock
Johnson and a spectacular heist-drive plot that sent audiences into a frenzy this
weekend. Notably, this was the biggest opening weekend since Harry Potter 7 last
November.
Check out our exclusive 'Fast Five'-themed comic strip from Francesco Marciuliano. Francesco writes the internationally-syndicated comic strip “Sally Forth” and the webcomic “Medium Large.” He was the head writer for the PBS series “SeeMore’s Playhouse,” for which one of his episodes won two 2007 Daytime Emmys. He currently writes for the Onion News Network.
Fox’s Rio continues to draw audiences around the world and in the wake of a stunningly successful Easter haul, wound up in second place with $14.4 million in its 3rd weekend of release. The family-friendly film has continued to do solid mid-week business and has flown past the $100 million mark.
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family takes the third spot in its second weekend with $10.1 million. Perry’s box office track record speaks for itself with this, the latest of his Madea-themed films, earning $25.1 million in its Easter weekend debut. The film has earned $41.1 million in 10 days of release.
Fox’s Water for Elephants stars Twilight’s Robert Pattinson as circus veterinarian reminiscing about his life during the Great Depression. Strong word-of-mouth and a devoted female fan base is keeping the film in the box office hunt and gave it a 4th place finish this weekend with a gross of $9.1 million and a domestic total after 10 days of $32.3 million.
Disney’s PG-rated teen comedy Prom was a counter-programming alternative to the decidedly more intense Fast Five and took fifth with $5.0 million. Pre-teens and teens were drawn to the fun subject matter of the modestly budgeted film.
Another PG-rated film debuted in 6th as Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil in 3-D from Weinstein Co. earned $4.1 million this weekend.
As powered by Fast Five, the third consecutive up weekend (by over 50% vs. the same weekend last year) at the box office is giving us great momentum as we head toward the first weekend of the summer movie season. Fortunes have changed very quickly for Hollywood with a 20% revenue deficiency just a month ago giving way to a mere 14% deficit through this incredibly strong weekend.
Weekend Box-Office Estimates
Top
Movies - For Weekend of April 29, 2011
Movie Weekend Gross Total to Date
1
Fast Five (PG-13) $83.6M $83.6M
2 Rio (G) $14.4M $103.6M
3 Tyler Perry's
Madea's Big Happy Family (PG-13) $10.1M $41.1M
4 Water for Elephants (PG-13)
$9.1M $32.3M
5 Prom (PG) $5.0M $5.0M