Pirates of the Caribbean – 3.5/5
Essentially this forms the second part of one very long movie, continuing the story of last year’s Dead Man’s Chest. It’s a marginal improvement on last year’s effort, but still falls a long way short of the sheer fun and exuberance of the first instalment. It’s hard now to remember how surprising the first movie was – coming at a time when pirate movies generally just sucked, it was far, far better than any film based on a theme park ride and any right to be. Then came the crashing disappointment of part 2 – only I will say this for it – I had to watch it a few times with different children I worked with and it did get better with repeated viewing, and that’s quite a rare quality.
Its main problem, as with Spiderman 3, is that it just tries to cram to much in – there are too many twists and turns, too many subplots and complications, too many bad guys. Like its immediate predecessor it’s a bit of a complicated mess, hard to keep track of fundamentals like character and motivation. Most of the new characters added are given so little room you wonder what the point of having them in first place was. In the case of Chow Yun Fat in his second highly entertaining chin stroking villain role of the year (see The Curse of the Golden Flower) this is a shame. In the case of Keith Richards as Captain Jack’s dad, it is more of a merciful release. All his presence shows is that he just cannot act in any way, shape or form. Some of his lines are mumbled so incoherently other characters need to echo his words in order for the audience to grasp them. His presence must have seemed a good idea at the time to somebody. Neither Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones or Tom Hollander’s Lord Cutler-Bennett are given enough room to really work as the main villain of the piece, whilst Johnathan Pryce’s Governor Swann and Admiral Norrington reprisals of their roles are both cut very brief.
All in all it feels a bit like the makers lost confidence in what made the first film so good and decided to throw in as much as possible to the second and third parts in the hope that at least some of it would work. And some of it does work.
On the positive side, yes, the film is long, but doesn’t feel it as it rips along at a wonderful pace. Some of the set pieces are wonderfully executed – from the opening battle in Singapore to one of the most unorthodox weddings in cinema history. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is a delight to watch as ever. Geoffrey Rush’s joyfully hammy Captain Barbosa is also a welcome return. And, from beginning to end, the film looks brilliant. The parrot and the monkey team up quite successfully as a comic double act, and even Mackenzie Crook’s literally roving eyeball gets its moment of usefulness.
There are surprising bits here too – an unexpected surreal element with multiple Jacks. The film also performs a last minute swerve from the outcomes it seemed to have been working so hard to set up and has the courage to not really meet the pretty boy gets pretty girls and they all live happily ever after expectations.
Its entertaining stuff and a long way from being a bad blockbuster, but still leaves you with the feeling they might have been better leaving alone after movie one. Given that, you’ll probably be left with mixed feelings by a final scene clearly leaving the door open for Pirates 4.
Also Showing:
Zodiac – 4/5 (with some ethical concerns)
This is the true story of a serial killer who gained considerable notoriety in California during the sixties and seventies, but was never caught. It is adapted from the book by Robert Graysmith, the newspaper cartoonist who became obsessed with the case and believes to this day he knows who the killer was. The Zodiac killer became the inspiration for Scorpio in Dirty Harry, but himself clearly thrived on the publicity and in his letters wanted to see a movie of the killings and wondered who would play him.
And this is the aspect of the film that makes me uneasy. The film buys wholeheartedly into Graysmith’s conclusions, which would mean that the killer is now dead. If that’s wrong, you can’t help feeling that he would be getting off on the fact that there’s now a movie about him, albeit one which is very far from sensationalising or glamorising his crimes. Even if he is dead, you can’t help but wonder whether fulfilling his wish for a film is really the best way to go.
Leaving those concern aside for now, as a film it is a very good one. Director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) wisely decides to focus less on the crimes than on the impact on the lives of those who investigate and are all to some extent scarred and damaged by their inability to catch him. Ultimately, following the case over more than 20 years, the structure is necessarily episodic and becomes much more of a character study than standard police thriller.
As such, it makes for a fascinating story and a great cast do a wonderful job. Robert Downey Jr, although hardly playing against type, is great as the booze-soaked crime reporter. The usually reliable Mark Ruffalo gives one of his very best performance as the cop troubled by the inability to catch the man and Jake Gyllenhaal brilliantly catches cartoonist Graysmith’s obsession with the case. Even Chloe Sevigny is excellent in the thankless task of playing Graysmith’s nagging wife.
Magicians – 2/5
Ten years ago I went to see a show in the Edinburgh Fringe. In front of an audience of no more than ten, a young comedy duo by the name of Mitchell and Webb performed a hilarious show by the title of Innocent Millions Dead and Dying. Ten years later, following successful radio shows, TV shows (Peep Show) and a series of adverts for Mac computers, the pair have arrived at their first feature film together (Webb (Mac to Mitchell’s PC) having already appeared in last year’s hit and miss Brit Comedy Confetti).
Unfortunately, that show 10 years ago (and practically everything they’ve done since, adverts included) is far funnier than this lame and utterly predictable film. The opening is promising enough – Harry (David Mitchell) accidentally cuts off his wife/assistant’s head on stage after learning she was having an affair with his partner Karl (Robert Webb). The potential pastiche of The Prestige is then neglected in favour of a far more predictable route.
Webb and Mitchell still have a certain charm about them, but whether their talents are really suited to the big screen remains to be seen. Put simply, the material here is just not strong or funny enough to do them credit. The story doesn’t really hang together and the screenwriters seem incapable of writing a credible female role.
That said, Jessica Stevenson (Confetti, TV’s Spaced) gives a game performance which earns her some of the film’s funnier moments. The other redeeming moments come from Peter Capaldi avaricious hamming as the show’s compere. But overall, the film’s stars are deserving of better material than this.
Essentially this forms the second part of one very long movie, continuing the story of last year’s Dead Man’s Chest. It’s a marginal improvement on last year’s effort, but still falls a long way short of the sheer fun and exuberance of the first instalment. It’s hard now to remember how surprising the first movie was – coming at a time when pirate movies generally just sucked, it was far, far better than any film based on a theme park ride and any right to be. Then came the crashing disappointment of part 2 – only I will say this for it – I had to watch it a few times with different children I worked with and it did get better with repeated viewing, and that’s quite a rare quality.
Its main problem, as with Spiderman 3, is that it just tries to cram to much in – there are too many twists and turns, too many subplots and complications, too many bad guys. Like its immediate predecessor it’s a bit of a complicated mess, hard to keep track of fundamentals like character and motivation. Most of the new characters added are given so little room you wonder what the point of having them in first place was. In the case of Chow Yun Fat in his second highly entertaining chin stroking villain role of the year (see The Curse of the Golden Flower) this is a shame. In the case of Keith Richards as Captain Jack’s dad, it is more of a merciful release. All his presence shows is that he just cannot act in any way, shape or form. Some of his lines are mumbled so incoherently other characters need to echo his words in order for the audience to grasp them. His presence must have seemed a good idea at the time to somebody. Neither Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones or Tom Hollander’s Lord Cutler-Bennett are given enough room to really work as the main villain of the piece, whilst Johnathan Pryce’s Governor Swann and Admiral Norrington reprisals of their roles are both cut very brief.
All in all it feels a bit like the makers lost confidence in what made the first film so good and decided to throw in as much as possible to the second and third parts in the hope that at least some of it would work. And some of it does work.
On the positive side, yes, the film is long, but doesn’t feel it as it rips along at a wonderful pace. Some of the set pieces are wonderfully executed – from the opening battle in Singapore to one of the most unorthodox weddings in cinema history. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is a delight to watch as ever. Geoffrey Rush’s joyfully hammy Captain Barbosa is also a welcome return. And, from beginning to end, the film looks brilliant. The parrot and the monkey team up quite successfully as a comic double act, and even Mackenzie Crook’s literally roving eyeball gets its moment of usefulness.
There are surprising bits here too – an unexpected surreal element with multiple Jacks. The film also performs a last minute swerve from the outcomes it seemed to have been working so hard to set up and has the courage to not really meet the pretty boy gets pretty girls and they all live happily ever after expectations.
Its entertaining stuff and a long way from being a bad blockbuster, but still leaves you with the feeling they might have been better leaving alone after movie one. Given that, you’ll probably be left with mixed feelings by a final scene clearly leaving the door open for Pirates 4.
Also Showing:
Zodiac – 4/5 (with some ethical concerns)
This is the true story of a serial killer who gained considerable notoriety in California during the sixties and seventies, but was never caught. It is adapted from the book by Robert Graysmith, the newspaper cartoonist who became obsessed with the case and believes to this day he knows who the killer was. The Zodiac killer became the inspiration for Scorpio in Dirty Harry, but himself clearly thrived on the publicity and in his letters wanted to see a movie of the killings and wondered who would play him.
And this is the aspect of the film that makes me uneasy. The film buys wholeheartedly into Graysmith’s conclusions, which would mean that the killer is now dead. If that’s wrong, you can’t help feeling that he would be getting off on the fact that there’s now a movie about him, albeit one which is very far from sensationalising or glamorising his crimes. Even if he is dead, you can’t help but wonder whether fulfilling his wish for a film is really the best way to go.
Leaving those concern aside for now, as a film it is a very good one. Director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) wisely decides to focus less on the crimes than on the impact on the lives of those who investigate and are all to some extent scarred and damaged by their inability to catch him. Ultimately, following the case over more than 20 years, the structure is necessarily episodic and becomes much more of a character study than standard police thriller.
As such, it makes for a fascinating story and a great cast do a wonderful job. Robert Downey Jr, although hardly playing against type, is great as the booze-soaked crime reporter. The usually reliable Mark Ruffalo gives one of his very best performance as the cop troubled by the inability to catch the man and Jake Gyllenhaal brilliantly catches cartoonist Graysmith’s obsession with the case. Even Chloe Sevigny is excellent in the thankless task of playing Graysmith’s nagging wife.
Magicians – 2/5
Ten years ago I went to see a show in the Edinburgh Fringe. In front of an audience of no more than ten, a young comedy duo by the name of Mitchell and Webb performed a hilarious show by the title of Innocent Millions Dead and Dying. Ten years later, following successful radio shows, TV shows (Peep Show) and a series of adverts for Mac computers, the pair have arrived at their first feature film together (Webb (Mac to Mitchell’s PC) having already appeared in last year’s hit and miss Brit Comedy Confetti).
Unfortunately, that show 10 years ago (and practically everything they’ve done since, adverts included) is far funnier than this lame and utterly predictable film. The opening is promising enough – Harry (David Mitchell) accidentally cuts off his wife/assistant’s head on stage after learning she was having an affair with his partner Karl (Robert Webb). The potential pastiche of The Prestige is then neglected in favour of a far more predictable route.
Webb and Mitchell still have a certain charm about them, but whether their talents are really suited to the big screen remains to be seen. Put simply, the material here is just not strong or funny enough to do them credit. The story doesn’t really hang together and the screenwriters seem incapable of writing a credible female role.
That said, Jessica Stevenson (Confetti, TV’s Spaced) gives a game performance which earns her some of the film’s funnier moments. The other redeeming moments come from Peter Capaldi avaricious hamming as the show’s compere. But overall, the film’s stars are deserving of better material than this.
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