Pirates of the Caribbean ~ On Stranger Tides

Jonny Depp reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow together with his trusty pirate companion (Kevin McNally) Mr Gibbs and (Geoffrey Rush) Captain Barbossa now with one wooden leg.  Penelope Cruz was wasted in her role as Black Beard’s daughter, which was far too careful not to overshadow Jonny Depp for some reason and in my opinion she should have nailed this little part but didn’t succeed! The story line is who gets to the fountain of youth first and the script was probably made up as they went along as it was non-existent really.   Nothing is subtle just blow up the whole damn set for us that is what we paid to see didn’t we? Well the fountain of youth gets the same treatment so don’t expect anything of any significance to happen there much except another fight because they all want the same thing and arrive at the same time. Fight scenes consist of arms and legs and swords flailing around and they try to talk between slashes but the camera follows all the action and makes you sick. Depp says of one lot of fighting “look the quarrel is between those two lets just stand here and get paid”, but, they have a stupid fight and more scenery gets spoiled. There are some lovely underwater special effects with the mermaids which are rather good, and expect to see a mermaid loosing her tail and gaining two legs.

Summing up:   I am very, very cross and it gets a 6 rating for being a load of noise, no swashbuckling pirates theme or proper choreography, no clever banter, no story line, no feelings for any of the characters except touchingly perhaps the missionary who falls for the mermaid.  There is nothing really much to say about Black Beard and the ending is very disappointing. No spoilers but I could sum it up in one word “cheated”. HOPE 3d VIEWERS HAD MORE FUN!!!!!

IMDB Pirates of the Caribbean ~ On Stranger Tides

Trailer

Rating 6/10

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Blood Diamond

You will never feel the same about diamonds again!  It is 1999, it’s the civil war in Sierra Leone in Africa.  Solomon Vandy is the award winning actor Dijmon Honsou who is in slavery sieving diamonds, finds a priceless pink blood diamond and buries it. When  DiCaprio as Danny Archer, the smuggler, discovers the African who hides it, they go searching for it which is near enough impossible in the political environment but this priceless diamond could get Archer out of the troubled continent and bring Solomon’s family back together.  DiCaprio finds Jennifer Connolly a journalist and realises he needs her help.

While very sad and sometimes upsetting, the movie has many emotional swings right from the start as the African father loses his family and his son to a tribal army.  DiCaprio is excellent, with a believable South African accent. The characters had depth and the film was steeped in the reality of history i.e. real events which DiCaprio certainly makes you watch on the edge of your seat.

IMDB Blood Diamond

Trailer

Rating: 8.1/10

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Inception

The ability to plant an idea in somebody’s subconscious that will take seed and grow is Inception.  In order to do this DiCaprio puts his victims into a dream state and he can take his colleagues with him all sharing the same dream to get the job done.  We are taken into a dream within a dream within a dream – 3 levels of subconciousness where time is compounded so that in the 1st level, 5 minutes of our time becomes a week, 2nd level becomes 6 months and in the 3rd, its 10 years so you can get a lot of work done in very little time the deeper you go.  Bringing everyone back has to be properly co-ordinated or you could end up in the subconscious abyss (a whopping 50 years or more before returning to reality).   Awesome anti-gravity sequences, flashes of genius in terms of story telling and mind bending graphics together with a large cast of stunt people. I loved all of the cast but Leonardo Di Caprio needs special mention and so does Marion Cotillard.  I watched the first 30 mins twice because I didn’t get the opening sequence, am I the only one?  This affected the rating.
IMDB: Inception

Trailer

Rating 8.9/10

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Limitless

Ever wondered what it was like to be a super-intelligent human and in a state of hyperawareness?  You can figure out what the title means.

A simple little pill does all of the above to Bradley Cooper who lives in disarray in his apartment writing his novel which never gets started.  One little bag of the stuff helps him pull his life together, he cleans up his act like Mary Poppins and achieves runaway business success!  However, all drugs have side effects and the demise of his secret success is just around every corner.  Anna Friel shows what the drug can do to your complexion and Robert De Niro appears over 2/3rds of the way through the film so don’t be hanging on the edge of your seat for him.  Bradley Cooper takes you on a journey through his drug addiction seeing patterns where there have never been before and using foresight that can dodge death or paying the rent to being a crippling addict waiting for his next fix.  To sum up; one edge of the seat moment, the one and only Bradley Cooper, and one witty one-liner at the end of the film which makes you want to punch the air, and then feel silly cos the rest of the film did not match that feeling at all hence the rating 6.5 due mostly to a weak story line.

IMDB Link: Limitless

Trailer

Rating 6.8/10

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