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HOT FUZZ
The latest addition from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick
Frost. This time these fanboys of film decided to attack the "buddy cop"
genre. Simon Pegg plays an overachieving police officer who makes his
colleagues look so bad with his perfection that the entire department
has his transferred away. Only it's to a very small town where nothing
ever happens... Or does it? Paired with a local policeman whom he
considers to be somewhat of an incompetent oaf, they discover that not
everything is as it seems.
These two play off each other like old friends and for those
fans of Shaun of the Dead and the UK series "spaced", you'll pick up
some recurring jokes. The references to pop culture buddy cop flicks
play into this film with some pretty funny outcomes. Really an enjoyable
comedy that doesn't just resort to fart and sex jokes.
SPIDER-MAN 3
Despite the foray of reviews on this one, here goes another.
With what feels like an eternity that this movie has been on production,
here it finally is. The big deal being, of course, that Venom is in this
one. What I don't get is the intensity that people feel Venom is
"Finally" here. Acting as if he truly is one of the CLASSIC spider-man
villains. But without digressing into canon timelines and what not,
director Sam Raimi DID wait and it really paid off. I admit I was truly
afraid to see how they would pull off Venom, not only effects-wise, but
also character-wise. Then I heard that "Eric Foreman" was to play Eddie
Brock, and I became VERY afraid.
Well my apologies to Topher Grace and the effects team for this
movie. He was truly pulled off beautifully and they managed to make
things Venom's look truly believable. Venom isn't everything. Sandman
was achieved beautifully as well.
That being said, the bad would be that there is WAY too much
brooding on Peter Parker's part. Of course the character is supposed to
have real emotions. Going through a lot of relationship trouble. The
movie did feel like they tried to cram as much as they possibly could
into it. Three villains in almost separate side stories ( though it does
all come together in the end ) made for a very *busy* movie.
Nonetheless, it remained fairly true to the spirit of all the
characters ( without going into semantics like where the symbiote came
from ) and as a Spidey fan I came out pretty satisfied. In fact, I much
preferred this one to the second one as far as sequels go.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END
With the way Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ended, you knew this movie was coming ( If you didn't already know from the pre-planned back to back sequels announcement ). It was really set up as two parts of a single movie. That being said, "At World's End" was a better movie overall. Perhaps because it ties up the second one, but also sees the return of Captain Barbossa giving Johnny Depp's Captain Sparrow more banter. The movie also features Rolling Stones' Keith Richards as Jack Sparrow's father. Yes, he seems as dazed as you would expect him to. But he was able to walk. I admit, my eyes rolled when he slumped back into a chair and started twanging on a guitar.
Those of you who are fans of the theme parks will recognize passages from the Walt Disney attraction, as well as actual sound bytes taken right from the attraction itself ( listen for it when they reach the "world's end" ).
All in all, don't expect it to be better than the first. But few movies ever are. It would be hard to recapture the same spark that Johnny Depp brought to the movie in the first place as we are now acquainted with his character and know what to expect. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a few "swashbuckling" surprises left for the viewer and his fellow cast.
-Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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