Pirates is great fun. (Forgive me for not typing the whole damn title, but I still want to be young when I finish this post.) Some critics have criticized it for not making much sense. Huh? It has pirates and curses and octopus-faced bad guys and the main character died at the end of the last Pirates movie and they want a sensible narrative?
What it does have is some of the coolest naval battle sequences ever, and enough good-humored fun to make it worth the price of a ticket.
Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks has an interesting challenge - how do you make a sociopathic serial killer likeable? And it's a different challenge than Silence of the Lambs. In that, Lecter is interesting and perhaps even fascinating, but not likeable. And he's not the movie's protagonest. Mr. Brooks is. If we don't like this guy, we don't watch. And this guy kills people for fun.I thought they pulled it off pretty well. The actors are good, especially Costner and William Hurt. (Hurt is dead-bang great.) The story requires a healthy dose of leaving reality at the door, which is what we should go to movies for. Folks not into twisting-plot and psych thrillers can safely pass, and it'll be just as good on DVD and cable.
3 comments:
Thanks for the reviews! Mr. Fix-it is totally on the fence about Pirates, since #2 was so, uh, crappy. And there are three big summer movies I want to see: Pirates, Die Hard and the Bourne thing. Three is at least 1 and possibly 2 more movies than Mr. Fix-it is equipped to deal with (at the theater, I mean). But he loved both Bourne movies, so that makes Bourne his pick, not mine, so I still get to pick something.
But now that you (as well as NSO and Retired Mama) endoresed Pirates, maybe that can be a joint pick, and I'll still get to pick Die Hard.
Although the truth is, if I say I really want to see something in the theater, there's really no chance he won't go. But if the movie sucks, he'll just make me wish he hadn't!
Anyway, I'm rambling. But about Mr. Brooks. It is tricky, and I think having someone like Costner, whom we tend to want to like, play that character probably helps. I doubt if it'd work if Mr. Brooks was played by John Malkovich.
It's much better than 2. I still don't know what happened in 2.
I also want to see Oceans 13. I hadn't been interested in Mr. Brooks, but your review makes it seem like it could be good. Keep the reviews coming.
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