Posts Tagged ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’

Short Take: More pirates, less politics and romance. The best since "Black Pearl."

Director: Rob Marshall

Screenwriters: Ted Elliot and Terry Russio, Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides novel)

Cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane

Length: 2h 17m

Synopsis: Jack Sparrow… er, Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) is in London trying to recruit a crew and commandeer a vessel. Concurrent to this is someone posing as Jack, unbeknownst to him, doing the same thing (and a lot more publically as well). The imposter, it turns out, is a woman named Angelica (Cruz), whose past has intersected with Jack’s on several occasions. She, like him, is in search for the Fountain of Youth and is working with her father to find it. His name: Captain Blackbeard (McShane). Meanwhile Captain Barbossa (Rush), having lost the Black Pearl to Blackbeard in battle, has joined the Royal Navy of all things and is likewise in search for the Fountain, and eager to exact his revenge on the infamous pirate. As it so happens, using the Fountain requires a special procedure that includes elements not easily collected. Naturally, Jack tries to use both groups’ efforts to his own advantage, necessitating death-defying stunts and improvisations of incredible finesse. Savvy?

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Suddenly Dickens' timeless tale is too scary? Humbug.

After reading numerous reviews of Robert Zemeckis’ newly released A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, it appears that there are two main congruences among the majority of critics who disliked the film: 1) the film lacks the warmth and emotional weight of the book and other adaptations; 2) certain parts are too scary for children. The lacking of an emotional connection (which no critic I have yet read has successfully explained and/or articulated) is certainly a valid critique if one were to grade the film based purely on a personalized evaluative judgment, but the argument that the film is too scary for kids intrigues me.

Exactly what makes a movie “too” scary for kids? And for that matter, who said the movie was made just for kids? Pixar’s Up, which was released earlier this year to wide critical acclaim and is a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, opened with a montage that explicated how Mr. Fredrickson and his wife were unable to conceive a child of their own, and how later Mr. Fredrickson eventually became a widower. Those old enough to understand what was being explained got teary-eyed, while little kids just sat there confused. This is certainly not “kiddy” material, and yet it’s at the beginning of a children’s movie. Critics praised this. The consensus is that one reason Pixar is such a fantastic filmmaking company is because their films can be thoroughly enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The point becomes – if Pixar can be heralded for not being afraid to appeal to audience demographics aside from just children, then why criticize Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol for attempting to do the same thing? Read the rest of this entry »