Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Now Playing: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

As a rule, I’m pretty leery of open-ended movie “franchises” that go past three films; they always remind me of those bad 80’s movies. So, when I saw they’re making a Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (On Stranger Tides), I audibly groaned. Is there anything left for them to tap? Having just rewatched the original Pirates trilogy, I thought they had pretty much covered the good stuff. I was wrong.

Let me get the negative stuff out of the way: there was no Orlando Bloom. I really thought there’d be at least a cameo – I mean, he’s Davy Jones! But, no. Really, that’s it.

Ian McShane as Blackbeard has to be one of the most inspired casting moves ever (though, I’m sure Shrek had something to do it). The man oozes menace and charisma … in other words, the perfect pirate. Penelope Cruz as his daughter Angelica was great as well; she’s one of the few actors I know who can be silly and sexy all at once… the perfect love interest for Captain Jack. It was nice to see Gibbs back (but no others? Sad). Also, Gilette is back – you may remember him saying the prophetic mermaid line to Ms. Swann (though maybe not, as that would have been eight years ago).

The mermaids storyline is pretty awesome. These mermaids are the best mermaids ever – they are beautiful, relentless, vicious and tough as barracudas. No Ariels here. Seriously, I see a whole new movie franchise opportunity: Mermaids! Vampires of the Sea! They come out at night, they burn in the sun, they have fangs… loved them.

All in all, a good movie. Entertaining and, despite being #4, surprising. 4 out of 5 stars.

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