Paramount and WWE Unite to Promote Two Dwayne Johnson Films

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND WWE® TEAM UP FOR “G.I. JOE: RETALIATION” AND “PAIN & GAIN” PROMOTION

Hollywood, CA AND Stamford, Conn. – February 19, 2013 – Paramount Pictures and WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced a promotional partnership to support Paramount’s upcoming feature film releases, G.I. JOE: RETALIATION and PAIN & GAIN. The cross-platform partnership includes integration opportunities on WWE programming at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event as well as appearances by film star and WWE Champion Dwayne “The Rock®” Johnson on Monday Night Raw® and WrestleMania® 29. In addition to storyline integration on its TV broadcasts, WWE will utilize all of its assets, including live events, digital and social media to promote the films and engage millions of fans each week.

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION is a co-presenting partner of Elimination Chamber with integration during the pay-per-view as well as storyline integration with stars D.J. Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki on Monday Night Raw on USA Network, leading up to the film’s release on March 29.

In the sequel to the 2009 release of G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, which grossed more than $300 million worldwide, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra, they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Skydance Productions present in association with Hasbro. G.I. JOE: RETALIATION stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Stevenson, Elodie Yung, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson. Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner. Based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe® characters. Written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and directed by Jon M. Chu. G.I. JOE: RETALIATION is in theaters everywhere March 29.

PAIN & GAIN will have a major presence at WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, April 7, and at WrestleMania Axxess, a four-day interactive WWE fan experience at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., from Thursday, April 4 to Sunday, April 7.

From acclaimed director Michael Bay comes PAIN & GAIN, a new action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie, based on the unbelievable true story of three personal trainers in 1990s Miami, who, in pursuit of the American Dream, get caught up in a criminal enterprise that goes horribly wrong. Ed Harris, Tony Shalhoub, Rob Corddry, Rebel Wilson and Bar Paly also star. Produced by Donald De Line, Michael Bay and Ian Bryce. Based on the Magazine Articles by Pete Collins. Screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. Directed by Michael Bay. PAIN & GAIN opens in theaters everywhere April 26.


About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, ParamountVantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, ParamountHome Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About WWE
WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 145 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 600 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Istanbul and Tokyo.

Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.

"Hansel and Gretel" Has Preview of G.I. Joe Sequel

EXCLUSIVE 3D FOOTAGE OF “G.I. JOE: RETALIATION” TO PLAY IN ADVANCE OF “HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS” IN THEATERS ACROSS THE GLOBE

THE 4-MINUTE PREVIEW WILL BEGIN PLAYING JANUARY 24TH IN IMAX 3D, REALD 3D AND DIGITAL 3D LOCATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions, in association with Hasbro, will release a 4-minute preview of the highly anticipated “G.I. JOE: RETALIATION” in IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and digital 3D theaters in advance of Paramount and MGM’s “HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS.”

This first-look at the film will play across the globe beginning January 24th and run throughout “HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTER’S” theatrical engagement.

Based on the best-selling HASBRO characters, this follow-up to the 2009 release of “G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA,” which grossed more than $300 million worldwide, is di Bonaventura production and is presented by Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions, in association with Hasbro.

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra, they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Stevenson, Elodie Yung, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson. Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner of Hasbro, from a screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe® characters.

“G.I. JOE: RETALIATION” is in theaters everywhere March 29th, 2013.

“HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS” stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as Hansel and Gretel, who, after getting a taste for blood as children, become the ultimate vigilantes, hell bent on retribution. Now, unbeknownst to them, Hansel and Gretel have become the hunted, and must face an evil far greater than witches... their past. In addition to Renner and Arterton, the film stars Famke Janssen and Peter Stormare. Written and directed by Tommy Wirkola and produced by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Kevin Messick and Beau Flynn.

“HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS” opens in the U.S. and Canada on January 24, 2013 with show times beginning at 10 p.m.


About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (“MGM”) is a leading entertainment company focused on the production and distribution of films and television content globally. The company owns one of the world’s deepest libraries of premium film and television programming. In addition, MGM has ownership interests in domestic and international television channels, including MGM-branded channels. For more information, visit www.mgm.com.

Review: Robert De Niro Leads a Cool Band of Men in "Ronin"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ronin (1998)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and some language
DIRECTOR: John Frankenheimer
WRITER: J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz (David Mamet), from a story by J.D. Zeik
PRODUCER: Frank Mancuso Jr.
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Fraisse (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Tony Gibbs
COMPOSER: Elia Cmiral

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth, Michael Lonsdale, Jan Triska, and Jonathan Pryce

Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), a mysterious Irish woman, gathers a team of freelance intelligence operatives to steal an even more mysterious metal suitcase. After her group successfully obtains the package, one of its operatives, Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard, Good Will Hunting), double crosses the others and steals the suitcase for himself. The mission goes awry, and Gregor’s treachery promptly throws the entire situation into confusion. Possible IRA (Irish Republican Army) renegades and ex-KGB (the former Soviet Union’s political police) also seek the case, and it becomes almost every man for himself.

In feudal Japan, ronin were samurai without masters, and a samurai’s purpose in life was to serve and to protect his master’s life with his own if necessary. Because of the strict Confucian caste system of the time, ronin could not get other work as merchants or as farmers, so they became hired guns. The characters in this film are, in a sense, ronin, people involved in the intelligence and espionage community who no longer serve a higher organization and are own their own. Or at least, they appear that way.

Robert De Niro is the Sam, ex-CIA, who from the moment he appears is the most savvy, the most intelligent, the straightest arrow, and the most vicious of the ronin when he has to be. De Niro is an electric presence on the screen and dominates this picture. He is the hero by which we ensure our safety, as we vicariously join this ride. Jean Reno is the sympathetic Vincent, a voice of reason and calm next to De Niro’s smoldering Sam. Vincent is a comforting presence in the rough and tumble espionage world of this movie, and he is the perfect partner for Sam.

Directed by veteran filmmaker John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) makes Ronin a taught, adult thriller sans lots of special effects and eye candy. It’s a thinking man’s action movie – a drama and suspense thriller with action scenes. From the initial meeting of the operatives, an aborted arms deal, the staging and acquisition of the suitcase to a chase through the streets of Paris and the resolution, this is a thrill ride with both adrenaline and intelligence. The pacing of this film is a testament to the filmmaking skill of an under appreciated director.

J. D. Zeik’s story (with work by David Mamet under a pseudonym) is a gem. Smart adult action movies, thrillers, and suspense films are rare. Both writers understand the importance of plot, story, setting, and character as the lynchpins, while so many other movies hang the structure of their films on SFX and the pretty faces of new, hot, young faces.

With a veteran cast that also includes Jonathan Pryce and Sean Bean, Ronin is the joy ride that mature moviegoers need between the critical favorite dramas and the blockbuster trash. At the end the film, enough of this good cast is left alive for a sequel, one of the few times an action drama is worthy of having one.

7 of 10
A-

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Terrence Malick's "The New World" Poetic and Spiritual

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 121 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The New World (2005)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hour, 15 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense battle sequences
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick
PRODUCER: Sarah Green
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Emmanuel Lubezki
EDITORS: Richard Chew, A.C.E., Hank Corwin, A.C.E., Saar Klein, and Mark Yoshikawa
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/HISTORICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David Thewlis, Yorick van Wageningen, Raoul Trujillo, Michael Greyeyes, Kalani Queypo, Ben Mendelsohn, Noah Taylor, Ben Chaplin, John Savage, Janine Duvitski, Irene Bedard, Eddie Marsan, Roger Rees, Myrton Running Wolf, Jonathan Pryce, and Jesse Borrego

Director Terrence Malick’s (The Thin Red Line) shot over 1 million feet of film for his most recent movie, The New World. Originally released on Christmas Day 2005 with a run time of 150 minutes, Malick pulled the film and edited it down to 135 minutes for re-release. This is the definitive version – reportedly the version Malick prefers.

The story begins in North America in the early years of the 17th century. The continent is as it has been for the previous five thousand years – a vast land of seemingly endless primeval wilderness with the only inhabitants being an intricate network of tribal cultures (Native American who speak Algonquin). In April of 1607, three small seagoing vessels from England sail into this Eden. On board one of the ships is John Smith (Colin Farrell), a once-promising young officer and soldier of fortune, now chained below decks and destined to be hanged for insubordination. Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer), however, pardons Smith because he realizes that he will need every able-bodied man he has in this new world, and Smith, in particular.

Newport and his men have landed (in what is now Virginia) in the midst of a sophisticated Native American empire ruled by the powerful chieftain, Powhatan (August Schellenberg). While this is the new world to the Englishmen, North America is an ancient world to Powhatan, and he and his people are wary of the Englishmen, believing they intend to stay. The Englishmen struggle to survive in their new home, so John Smith seeks assistance from the local tribes. During this trip, he encounters a young native woman who at first seems like a woodland sprite or perhaps something not real. However, this willful and impetuous creature is real, and she is Powhatan’s daughter (Q’orianka Kilcher), known as Pocahontas (although she is never called that in the film). Smith and the young woman form a bond that transcends ordinary love, and it tests the strength of their bonds with their respective people. However, their love story would become one of the best-known American legends.

The New World is really two stories. One is a character driven narrative about the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas, and the other is an entirely visually conveyed story about North America as it was just as the English settlers were arriving. The former is internally driven. Smith and Pocahontas speak mostly in voiceovers, and the film leaves the audience to guess at what thoughts and images run through their minds as the two bond. It’s a poetic courtship based on shared feelings, in which the audience might understand the spiritual connection, but is often left yearning to share the obviously intense physical connection. Malick takes an odd approach to filming romance and love in this movie; it is impressionistic – at least from the point of the view of the audience. However, it can intrigue, can make the viewer interested in understanding why these two people from vastly different worlds are so in love with one another.

The latter tale is visually driven. Malick and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (who earned an Oscar nod for his work), present the new world as an expansive verdant forest of fertile, intensely green plant life; wide-open, deep blue skies; and dreamlike waterways. Shot almost entirely with available (natural) light, the film has an ethereal quality like something trying and almost succeeding at being real, although it isn’t. Malick stages the battles between natives and newcomers with a sense of poetry that could pass for a kind of violent ballet or interpretive dance in the right light. In the end, Malick presents these confrontations as a sort of pastoral, historical recreation, and it has a natural feel to it – verisimilitude, perhaps.

The performances are excellent. Colin Farrell and Q’orianka Kilcher have magical screen chemistry, and Kilcher is quite a find, giving one of the best performances by an actress in 2005. Farrell takes his bad boy attitude and quality and transforms himself into a thoughtful man who has lived a life of adventure and enormous responsibility – a rebel who also understands consequence and responsibility. Christian Bale also makes a nice turn with a small role in the last third of the film. Malick, one of the few American directors not only totally dedicated to the idea that film is art, but also dedicated to making film that is actually high art, does make a few missteps (too many voiceovers, a few abrupt jumps in narrative, some dry spots, etc.). However, he brings his talented cast and crew together and creates in The New World an outstanding poetic, visual feast that speaks softly to our souls.

8 of 10
A

Friday, June 02, 2006

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Imagination Can't Save Clunky "The Brothers Grimm"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 137 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences, and brief suggestive material
DIRECTOR: Terry Gilliam
WRITER: Ehren Kruger
PRODUCERS: Daniel Bobker and Charles Roven
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Newton Thomas Sigel
EDITOR: Lesley Walker

FANTASY/ADVENTURE with elements of action, comedy, horror, and mystery

Starring: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Peter Stormare, Lena Headey, Peter Stormare, and Monica Bellucci

The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger), are renowned collectors of folklore and are also frauds. They travel from village to village in French-occupied Germany (around 1811 or 1812), and, with the help of two assistants, rid the hamlets of monsters and other “enchanted” creatures – monsters that are of their own making. The Napoleon government calls their bluff, however, when Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce), a French military official, demands that Will and Jacob investigate the disappearances of 11 girls in and around a remote village and a nearby forest.

Initially the brothers assume that a group of men are pulling the same stunts they do, but they discover that the events in the forest really do involve the supernatural. The disappearances are directly connected to a 500 year-old curse. In an ancient tower deep in the dark forest sleeps the immortal sorceress, the Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci), and though she sleeps, she commands the denizens of the fearsome magic forest, both animal and plant, to gather what is necessary to break her sleep and return her to her youthful beauty. With both French officials and the villagers doubting them, Will and Jake, joined by a village trapper named Angelika (Lean Headey), race solve the mystery of the curse if they are to save their own necks from the French and to free the village of the great evil.

Combine the dazzling visuals of visionary director Terry Gilliam (Brazil and 12 Monkeys, as well as being a Monty Python alum) with the imagination of horror movie scribe, Ehren Kruger (Scream 3 and The Ring), and in theory we should get something great. However, the first hour of Gilliam and Kruger’s collaboration, a new film entitled The Brothers Grimm, is an absolute disaster – a walk-out-the-theatre, sleep inducing disaster. Somewhere deep into the film’s second act, it comes alive. The film takes the real life folklore collectors, of course the Brothers Grimm, and turns them into fraudulent monster hunters, but also creates a scenario in which they redeem themselves and launch their literary career.

Kruger’s imaginative and radiant spin on the Grimm fairytales really doesn’t come to life until late; before that, all his script manages to do is drag out a concept that is itself nothing more than a fairytale – short and sweet, but not a two-hour movie. How Will and Jake got to the point of their conflict with the Mirror Queen is of little or no interest. In a written folktale, that would amount to maybe two paragraphs and not more than two-minute voiceover narration in a film. The story is really about the Brothers Grimm versus the Mirror Queen; all the other stuff (brotherly feuds, worrisome French officials, and the brothers’ snake oil show) becomes refuse if you stretch it out too long, which Kruger’s script did. When the Grimms finally take on the Queen, the film becomes a messy, but entertaining little fairy tale flick.

Gilliam, whose film career has sputtered much of the last decade, maintains his visual aplomb. The Brothers Grimm has production values to rival great films, whether they are serious costume drama or classic fantasy films like The Wizard of Oz or Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. The costumes, sets, props, visual effects, cinematography, etc. are fabulous – from the dreary village hovels and mud-soaked streets to the haunted forest and the interiors of the Mirror Queen’s sumptuous (though dusty and filled with spider webs) sleeping chamber – and affirm Gilliam’s eye for creating period detail in fantasy movies.

Sadly, he doesn’t seem to have much control over the film’s narrative. At times, The Brothers Grimm is a clunky action movie, and then it becomes a comic fantasy full of bumbling oafs with weird accents, striking images (the horse that swallows a child whole), whimsy, and a variety of strange creatures. Gilliam seems powerless before Kruger’s awful dialogue for this movie (much of it hard to hear because of poor sound work). In the end, all he can do is make it an action/adventure fairy tale, in which all the characterization is lost in the sound, the fury, and the art direction/set decoration. Still, he’s the one who salvages any entertainment out of this messy script. The Brothers Grimm is like a Gilliam sampler of the director’s film trademarks – medieval shenanigans and gilded surrealism.

None of the actors here is worth mentioning, only to say that Heath Ledger still has that winsome handsomeness that makes him such a captivating boy. Gilliam and Kruger do great disservice to the female leads in this film, Lena Headey and Monica Bellucci. Ms. Bellucci is quite beautiful, but great actress she’s not. Her Mirror Queen won’t have people thinking of the White Queen in Disney’s Snow White. If you must see Gilliam’s dazzling vision on a big screen, then, by all means go. Otherwise, The Brothers Grimm is a home video experience – a fractured fairy tale that kids won’t dig, but movie lovers might appreciate for the clever visual invention.

5 of 10
C+

Sunday, August 28, 2005

The Real "Brazil" Still Dazzles the Imagination

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 209 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Brazil (1985) – Director’s Cut
Running time: 144 minutes (2 hours, 24 minutes)
MPAA – R
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
DIRECTOR: Terry Gilliam
WRITERS: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown
PRODUCERS: Arnon Milchan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Pratt
EDITOR: Julian Doyle
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/COMEDY with element of romance

Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Peter Vaughan, Kim Greist, Barbara Hicks, Charles McKeown, Kathryn Pogson, Shelia Reid, and Holly Gilliam

In a dystopian future, an inefficient bureaucracy controls society. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a daydreaming civil servant in the Department of Records (part of the Ministry of Information) who spots an error in a sea of paperwork – an innocent man was arrested and apparently killed because that error mistakenly identified him as a terrorist. In this future, the government expects citizens to pay fines and monetary penalties for their offences against society (the government) simply because even the most minor offenses generate so much paperwork. So the family of the innocent, now-deceased man is owed a refund for the money charged them for his “crimes.” While attempting to deliver the refund, Sam encounters Jill Layton (Kim Greist), and she looks exactly like the woman who is in all his daydreams. In the course of trying to catch up with Jill, Sam incorrectly becomes the object of government’s (via the Ministry) ire, as they assume him to be the mysterious, illegal serviceman and terrorist, Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro).

Part social commentary, part outrageous fantasy, and black comedy, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is one of the most dead-on socio-political satires in film history. It so accurately portrays both bureaucratic excess and negligence that it is both uncanny and uncannily timely, especially in light of recent events involving individual citizens being mistaken for terrorists because of their names, nationalities, and/or ethnicities. In fact, the Ministry of Information’s slogan, “Suspicion Breeds Confidence” defines the mentality of post-9/11 America.

The things that make this film excellent are the script and the actors’ ability to interpret its subtleties, while performing amidst the director’s indulgences. Terry Gilliam’s (Time Bandits) direction is obtuse, and he often seems more enamored with the dressings of his scenario rather than the narrative and allegorical aspects of it. Meanwhile, the cast seems better at bringing Gilliam’s vision to the screen that the director himself. This includes a brilliant performance by Jonathan Pryce as an exasperated everyman who doesn’t realize that he truly is different from everyone one else (kind, considerate, intelligent) and how much that endangers his life. The text (writing) is what makes Brazil a superb social commentary and an exceptional black comic satire, and luckily the cast acted as midwife to bring the script’s best aspects to screen even when Gilliam meanders.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1986 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown) and “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Norman Garwood and Maggie Gray)


1986 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins” “Best Production Design (Norman Garwood) and “Best Special Visual Effects” (George Gibbs and Richard Conway)

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Review: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead's Man Chest" a Bloated Corpse

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 146 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Running time: 2 hours, 31 minutes
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images
DIRECTOR: Gore Verbinski
WRITERS: Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio (based upon characters created by Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert, and Elliot & Rossio and Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean)
PRODUCER: Jerry Bruckheimer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dariusz Walski
EDITOR: Stephen E. Rivkin and Craig Wood
Academy Award winner

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/DRAMA/COMEDY

Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Cook, Kevin McNally, David Bailie, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hollander, Geoffrey Rush, Naomie Harris

When Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl debuted in early July 2003, it had already received mixed reviews from the nation’s major movie critics – many of them deriding the film for having been derived from the Walt Disney theme park ride, “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Disney certainly expected the film to be a hit, but surely they didn’t think it would gross just over $305 million in domestic box office take or go on to do just under $654 million in worldwide business. The Curse of the Black Pearl was the proverbial dumb and silly film that was very well made, a fantasy adventure that caught the imaginations of a broad audience, in particularly that all-important summer demographic – the family. Johnny Depp even earned an Oscar nomination for playing Pirates’ charming rogue of an anti-hero, Captain Jack Sparrow. All in all, this movie delightfully surprised me when I expected so little.

The first of two sequels just opened. Ironically, this new film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, actually turned out to be the un-fun dumb movie that I expected the first to one to be. It’s everything bad summer movies usually are – full of sound and fury signifying nothing, nothing, and nothing again.

Dead Man’s Chest opens to find the first film’s young lovers, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, seems bored with this part) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, ditto), imprisoned for aiding and abetting Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp impersonating a robot impersonating him from the first Pirates movie). The couple’s nemesis is Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), a British official with warrants for their arrests, as well as that of Sparrow, but Beckett’s really after something else. Will makes a deal with Beckett that would free him and Elizabeth, but Will has to find Sparrow and retrieve Sparrow’s apparently enchanted compass for Beckett. Elizabeth later escapes prison with the aid of her father, Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce), and makes her own deal with Beckett to find Sparrow.

Meanwhile, we learn that 13-years ago or so, Sparrow made a deal with cursed sea captain, Davy Jones (played by Bill Nighy with much assistance from CGI). For the cost of his soul, Sparrow got to be captain of a ship, the Black Pearl. Now, Jones, who has an octopus-like head, has returned from the gloomy ocean depths to claim his payment: Sparrow must hand himself over to Jones’ servitude and join the other sea phantoms aboard Jones’ ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman. Sparrow’s only way out is to give Jones 100 souls in exchange for his one, but Sparrow doesn’t intend to honor even that deal. Sparrow intends to find the dead man’s chest. Buried in some secret location, it holds Davy Jones still-beating heart. The man or woman who possesses it can destroy Jones and/or rule the seas. Sparrow, however, isn’t the only one who wants the treasure of the dead man’s chest, and the fight to find it means that Jack Sparrow may not meet his deadline to appease Davy Jones.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest looks and sounds exactly like the first film, but whereas the first film was fun and filled with the spirit of adventure, Dead Man’s Chest is much darker. Magic and curses play a larger part, and the lead characters: Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann are all in much more peril. That makes for a film rotten with the stench of gloom, doom, and peril, which wouldn’t be bad if that made Dead Man’s Chest a good movie. Like everything else in this flick (acting, directing, shamelessness, etc.), this dark mood lands with resounding thud.

Dead Man’s Chest is noisy and ponderous, a lazy flick that goes nowhere. It begins well enough with an island misadventure – Sparrow, his Black Pearl crew, and Will Turner engaging in a madcap escape from a tribe of cannibals, but that’s the only bit of slapstick from this flick that recalls the original. It has a lot of potential, with many of the scenes and sub-plots ripe to deliver a good time, but ultimately the moviemakers just fumble it away. It’s hard to believe, but after 2½ hours, this movie goes nowhere. Dead Man’s Chest is just a setup for the third film in this franchise, which is currently titled, Pirates of the Caribbean: The World’s End (the second and third films were shot back-to-back). Dead Man’s Chest seems like the chopped-off half of a longer story because it is. I only hope that this next film, scheduled for release Summer 2007, is the better half.

3 of 10
C-

Saturday, July 08, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 win for “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall); 3 nominations for “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Rick Heinrichs, art director and Cheryl Carasik, set decorator), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Christopher Boyes, George Watters II), and “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes, Lee Orloff)


2007 BAFTA Awards: 1 win for “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall); and four nominations for costume design, make up/hair, production design, and sound


2007 Golden Globes: 1 nomination for actor-motion picture comedy/musical (Johnny Depp)

Review: "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is a Surprise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 111 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Running time: 143 minutes; MPAA – PG-13 for action/adventure violence
DIRECTOR: Gore Verbinski
WRITERS: Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, from a screen story by Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert, and Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio
PRODUCER: Jerry Bruckheimer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Darius Wolski (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Stephen E. Rivkin, Arthur Schmidt, and Craig Wood
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE/HISTORICAL with elements of romance

Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Zoe Saldana, and Isaac C. Singleton, Jr.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that some movie critics and reviewers are stanking on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl mainly because the movie is loosely based on a theme park ride at Disney World. That’s beside the point; it’s not like a theme park ride is the worst thing upon which a movie could be based, especially since we’ve all lost track of how many movies have been based upon skits from “Saturday Night Live.” All that really matters is the question whether this is a fun film or not, which it is – the rousing good, old-fashioned adventure film that Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas tried to be. I guess I should also mention that I have an incredible weakness for pirate films, so that could color my judgment.

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, sexy elf-warrior from the Lord of the Rings films), a talented blacksmith, joins a the pirate captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and becomes a pirate himself to rescue the love of his life, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) from the wicked pirates of the fearsome ship, The Black Pearl. Led by their mutinous Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), the men of the Pearl are cursed and must break the ancient spell with the blood of Elizabeth.

Directed by Gore Verbinski (The Ring), Black Pearl is an SFX-laden movie distraction that’s worth the time distracted. The plot is bare (then, again aren’t most made-to-order blockbusters thin on plot), and the story gets muddled at the end, hitting more than it’s share of sand bars. Don’t think, enjoy. High production values, costumes, great sets, wonderful backdrops and vistas, the open sea, nasty pirates, colonial military, brave sea dogs, and a bucketful of obstacles facing our heroes – it’s the makings of a movie meant for summer or holiday release. If this is eye candy, it’s a sweet dessert without the worrisome aftertaste of plot and story that stays with you.

I always say that the price of a ticket is worth the cost if you can find at least two performances worth watching. Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow is a campy, burlesque pirate with an over-the-top nutty flavor. Every time you think that Sparrow might become annoying, Depp, in swarthy getup, rises to the occasion with a flourish of hand gestures and twisted facial expressions that for some unearthly reason endear him to the audience again. Not to be outdone, Geoffrey Rush, a very fine actor, hams it up with same intensity that he’d give to a “serious and worthy dramatic film. He gets inside Pirates, sloshes around when he wants to be zombie suave and then turns on nasty ooze when he’s supposed to be a really, really, really bad man.

Pirates of the Caribbean might occasionally play at being a pirate film in the classic tradition of old Hollywood, but it’s true to its modern roots. It’s a get-on-and-ride attraction with all the ups-and-downs and thrill machine delivery that Disney engineering creates in theme park rides.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 5 nominations for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (JohnnyDepp), “Best Makeup” (Ve Neill, Martin Samuel), “Best Sound Editing” (Christopher Boyes, George Watters II), “Best Sound Mixing” (Christopher Boyes, David Parker, David E. Campbell, Lee Orloff), “Best Visual Effects” (John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, Terry D. Frazee)

2004 BAFTA Awards: 1 win for “Best Make Up/Hair” (Ve Neill, Martin Samuel); and four nominations for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Johnny Depp), “Best Costume” (Penny Rose), “Best Sound” (Christopher Boyes, George Watters II, David Parker, David E. Campbell, Lee Orloff)

2004 Golden Globes: 1 nomination for actor-motion picture comedy/musical (Depp)