Updates: The Hangover Part Two, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and more

I've a few updates to make over the next few days, I've watched a fair few more films and haven't written about them yet. In this post I'll just give my thoughts on two films I saw in the cinema in the past week: Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part Two.

Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides

The 4th in the series of Pirates of the Caribbean films, On Stranger Tides' focus is Captain Jack Sparrow's quest to reach the fountain of youth, which is also the object of three other parties' desire. The Spanish, the British (whose expedition is captained by Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa character) and Blackbeard (played by Ian McShane).

I'll admit that I had higher hopes for this film than I did the past two sequels, as this film promised to be, like the first, a self-contained story that will be resolved by the films end rather than the 5 hour mash of storylines and subplots PotC 2 and 3 were, which were a load of old bollocks.

Sadly, while this film is better than the other sequels, it still falls well short of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, which remains the only good film in the franchise. The problem I found with this film is that I simply did not find it at all engaging. I quickly grew tired of drawn out action sequences involving Jack Sparrow escaping from numerous perils, and some of the choices made my characters in the film made absolutely no sense. For example, in the first scene on Blackbeard's ship it's quickly established that his crew are barely more than slaves, and detest working under him, and yet later in the film they are quite willing to put their lives at stake fighting for him. The mermaid subplot made absolutely no sense either, and once again there were invulnerable henchmen, and silly magical powers.

Really it's not worth seeing this film, I never will again.

4/10 (for the purposes of comparison, I would rate the first PotC as 7/10, and the others as 3/10)

The Hangover Part Two

If you're wondering what the plot of the Hangover Part Two is, just think of the first one but change "fucked up in Las Vegas" to "fucked up in Bangkok". It is exactly the same, save for a change in location, a change in who is getting married, and a change in who they manage to lose. So it's Stuart (Ed Helms, the bespectacled dentist) who's getting married this time, and ends up getting accidently fucked up with Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (weird beardy man Zach Galifianakis), and losing his bride-to-be's younger brother Teddy.

The film is watchable, but fairly boring and predictable, especially if you've seen the first. The ending was fairly bollocks as well, at least the part about Stuart's father-in-law-to-be deciding he doesn't hate him anymore, which, given the past 48 hours in the film, would see any doctor declaring him legally insane.

All in all, it's exactly the same as the first film, just in a different place and not as funny.

5/10 (first film would be 7/10)




There are a few other films I've watched as part of the 30 Day Film Challenge that I haven't gotten around to writing about yet, these are:

3. Das Leben der Anderen (the Lives of Others) (2006)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
5. The Searchers (1956)

2. Network

Sidney Lumet's 1976 film Network follows a fictional television network called UBS and its quest for ratings and profitability. It focuses on its upturn in fortunes thanks to soon-to-be fired newsreader Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and his outbursts on his news show. At first the network seeks to punish Beale for his indiscretions but the public take to his ranting and tune in in great numbers to see more.

I think the film shows very well the ruthlessness of its TV executive characters, who will stop at nothing to get higher ratings and earn more money. However, I wasn't particularly impressed with all the overblown, shouty speeches in the film. Every character seems to have one each. It makes sense with Beale's character, since he has clearly lost his mind and is prone to ranting, but it was tiring listening to the weighty rhetoric routinely delivered throughout the film by all and sundry. It was an interesting film, but I was very disappointed.

6.5/10

30 Day Film Challenge

I'll be away for the weekend, but afterwards I plan on continuing the 30 Day Film Challenge proper. Second film will probably be Network (1976). Stay tuned!

Paths of Glory

1. Paths of Glory

I haven't really got the will to write a proper review here, the film is about 3 soldiers in the French Army during World War I who have been charged with cowardice after an impossible attack has failed, and their commanding officer who tries to defend them in court. The film was very good, I found the generals to be detestable, and the anti-war message was very powerful. Still though, I wasn't as impressed by it as some seem to be. A very good film yes, but I didn't feel it merits the level of praise it has gathered.

8/10

Not sure what the next film will be, maybe Solaris.

30 Day Film Challenge

Just going to try a 30 Day Film Challenge of a different type, there's one floating about on Facebook which asks you to post a film a day meeting certain criteria (e.g. Your Favourite Film, Film Starring Your Favourite Actor etcetc) but I'm going to pick 30 films I've never seen before and try and watch one every day. Here is a preliminary list of 30, in no particular order:

1. Paths of Glory
2. The Best Years of Our Lives
3. Patton
4. Vertigo
5. The French Connection
6. Barry Lyndon
7. Solaris
8. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
9. 8 1/2
10. The Seventh Seal
11. Rashomon
12. The Lives of Others
13. Once Upon a Time in the West
14. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
15. The Pianist
16. The Sting
17. The Departed
18. To Kill a Mocking Bird
19. Double Indemnity
20. Brazil
21. Psycho
22. The Wages of Fear
23. Heartbreak Ridge
24. The Bridge on the River Kwai
25. You Can't Take It With You
26. La Dolce Vita
27. The Magnificent Seven
28. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
29. The African Queen
30. Touch of Evil

I'll watch Paths of Glory tonight, that one's for definite, but the others might change. I'll try and post every day with a short review detailing what I think about each picture, although it may just end up with a rating and not much else.