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Reviews
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
The Dark Side to Disney
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was one of those phenomenal films that hasn't come along since Star Wars: A New Hope, a rollicking, fun, summer adventure film that reinvigorates a genre and makes you want to go to the movies again. Well if Black Pearl is A New Hope then Dead Man's Chest is easily the new Empire Strikes Back. The film is darker, more violent, more frightening, and more cynical than the first, showing the side of piracy that was glamorized in the first. The backstabbing, the lying, the stealing, the double edged sword of morality is shown and the true pitfalls of the profession are revealed.
We start out on the wedding day of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, which has been interrupted by new chief villain Lord Cutler Beckett. Because of that little escape at the end of the first film where they allowed Capt. Jack Sparrow to escape Will, Liz, and Norrington (who has since left his position in the Royal Navy) are all under arrest. The only way Beckett will show mercy on these young lovebirds is if Will can retrieve Sparrow's compass.
Jack Sparrow however has different uses for the compass, he needs it to find the chest of Davy Jones (which holds his heart), and is the only thing that can help Jack call off Jones' monstrous Krakken from the Sparrow hunt. Will agrees to help Jack in return for the compass and what follows is a swashbuckling adventure that outdoes the first in both action, humor, plot, character development, and mystery. Do yourself a favor and return to a time when movies were fun, thought provoking, and left you wanting more by watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
The Faculty (1998)
A shining gem
On the outside "The Faculty" may appear to be your average teen horror/sci-fi film with a few self-referential references thrown in. But I promise you this is not the crap I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legends, Scream 2 & 3 are made of. This is what the Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Scream is made of. The film is suprisingly intelligent and makes use of it's talented young cast. Robert Rodriguez is a big part of why this film is so good, because of his innovations in technique and style that set this apart from most teen oriented films. He also assembled an all star cast including: Elijah Wood, Robert Patrick, Shawn Hatosy, Josh Hartnett, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Jon Stewart, Famke Janessen, Piper Lauire, Bebe Nuewirth, Christopher MacDonald, and guess what? Usher Raymond doesn't take anything away from the film. He doesn't add anything but he's not a detriment to it. Wood, Patrick, Nuewirth, DuVall, and surprisingly Hartnett are the standouts. Don't get me wrong, the whole cast is great but those five are the cream of the very talented crop. If you're a sci-fi fan like I am, you'll love the references and you'll love how this film does not insult it's audience's intelligence level. Granted there's a few throw-away lines such as Wood's final "Guaranteed to jack you up" that we could do with out but pretty much every movie in the sci-fi, horror, action, adventure genres are going to have those. The special effects are top notch and puts a great juxtaposition between the hum-drum Ohio high school environment and the alien creatures that are beginning to strangle this small town. All in all, this is one of the best sci-fi films of the 1990s and along with Starship Troopers, deserves to be put on an all-time list as well.
Heathers (1988)
Brilliant Film
There is hardly a doubt in my mind that Heathers is one of the best films of the 1980s, if not included in a list that names all the essential films of movidedom. The movie is about Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) who is fed up with her role and association with the cruelest and most popular clique in Remington High. The three other members (appropriatley named Heather and identified by their last names 'Duke', hobbies 'Cheerleader', and position '#1') are the dominant members of the school and take pride and joy in other's suffering. It isn't until Veronica meets a loner named Jason Dean (Christian Slater) that she finally has an outlet to vent her frustration about her life. Eventually JD and Veronica murder the leader of the clique and are forced to cover it up with a suicide. This leads to a horrificly dark satire of the teenage suicide epidemic of the eighties. After JD's rage continues Veronica must ask herself the question: Is she on the way to the prom or to hell? The movie is brilliant acted by Ryder, but the show is stolen by Slater. His Nicholson-esque performance is eerie and he gets my vote as one of the top villains of all time. The supporting roles are done well enough with the standouts being Dean's creepy father and Paula Fleming, the guidance counselour. Lehman directs the movie with a brilliant mix of colors that range from lighter at the beginning of the movie to darker at the end, as the tone changes. Although both Lehman and Waters would never match their previous success (they were actually quite bad after Heathers) this film proves that they did at one time have something to offer the world of cinema. While the story may seem like an ordinary black comedy and satire of the 1980s teen films it has a very simple message underneath: Be your own person. We have always been told in our lives to "not do something just because it's cool". So many teens reflect that, but there is also the other side of the coin "don't do something just because it's uncool" which Veronica tries with JD. So many teens conform to unconformity which doesn't make them individuals at all, this was really the first film to satire that other side of the argument. Be your own person does not mean rebel against the popular people or to join them, it just means be yourself and I think by the end of the film the viewer shares with Veronica's journey.