I'm sorta on the fence with this one. No, I haven't seen it yet. The first was a fluke, a thin concept saved by a fantastically charismatic performance by Depp. But I have my doubts they can stretch that out over 2 more films. My wife is eager to see this one, and so was I until I read a few things that made me wonder...

This thing is like, 150 minutes long, which reminds me of the elaborate run-on sentence that was Matrix Reloaded. Bored to the point of rage, I stormed out of the theatre looking to assault whomever was responsible for allowing that film to be shown. Will this happen with PotC 2? Do I risk it?

From what little I've seen, this flick has a lot of the same issues that killed, say, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Oodles of pointless action, too much plot with low explanations, and tons of mugging for the camera. Hmmm.... I might wait 'til it's on video. That way, if I get bored, I can just shut it off and not get upset at the thought of losing nearly $10 & 2+ hours of my life.

However, I know my wife plans to set up a time when we're in Chicago to view this with friends. And, uh, am I really gonna be the snob who bows out? Well, I've done it before...

Convince me to either see it or not. I await yer info.

go see it in the theatre where you can enjoy people talking and cell phones ringing

the midnight showing last night was sold out by six pm, so i plan on catching a late matinee this afternoon.

a couple of my friends who work at the movie theater saw it wednesday and said it was decent, but way way too long.

they are wrong about most movies, though, and said the exact same thing about superman.

anyway, i can't wait.

i'm pretty sure we are going to go see this in a couple of weeks. after the crowds and stuff of course, cuz i hate crowded movie theaters.

reason for seeing for me: i'm a fan of the depp...i think what he did for that jack sparrow in the last movie and all his other work is pretty fantastic. sure he kinda blows at english accents but you can always tell he's really enjoying what he's doing.

am i the only person that LOVES packed movie theaters?

my friends and i had to share three seats between five people at kill bill 2, and it's still the best moviegoing experience i've ever had

a close #2 is freddy vs. jason, which was packed with coloreds. i will only go to mainstream horror movies on friday night at the latest showing. nothing like watching freddy puppeteer his victim with their own veins in front of a family of four. the girl next to me, when freddy makes that kid see a goat in the street near his house, shouted "that's a goat!" and i high fived her seconds later. i think we shared a moment.

edit: some of the posters living in the suburbs might not understand what i'm tlaking about. here in alabama, the only people that go to movies at 10 or later on weekend nights are young teenagers, a few college students, and black families.

horror movies & comedies are often enchanced by a crowd

Yeah, the first one was much better than my rock bottom expectations, but it was still overrated ("best film of the year - NY Times"?). I wasn't excited about this (or the third and hopefully final picture), and considering the poor word of mouth it's getting, I'll probably skip it.

Keira Knightley is like the hottest skinny, no titty chick ever, but I hope the eating disorder rumours are not true.

she is looking a litle unhealthy

who is that in your avatar?

Jesus why can't these women eat? I swear eating disorders are the new "in" thing in terms of getting publicity. Is she anorexic? Bulemic? Who the fuck cares? But this will keep her on Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight, as well as numerous magazines, so in her eyes, and her publicist's eyes, it's probably a great career move. I guess someone's gonna have to die before this stops. Oh well.

Actually this was my take on the last one. The timing was atrocious. The editor should've been fired but then I suppose they were going for the whole swashbuckler epic thing and figured just leave it all in there.




I read somewhere that she claims its a disorder in her family history (grandmother, mom, etc)
but that she doesn't suffer from it.. I'd guess she's in denial.

i saw freddy vs jason in the packed theaters as well. packed theaters are great for those kinds of movies. i remember we all got drunk and everyone in the theater was cheering and yelling.

wakingrufus refused to pay for the movie so he stood outside the theater at yorktown mall wearing a zoot suit and a fedora thing. no joke. he got hit on by some middle aged women or something. it was a little werrd.

doubtful id want a packed theater for pirates. but it could be fun...

i LOVE packed theatres. i'll enjoy a movie 100 times better in a sold out crowd than i would by myself or with a few patrons. it just adds to the whole experience. if i go to a movie and it's sparsely filled i feel even more awkward.

but, no, i probably won't see this movie unless someone pays for my ticket. hated the first one and all that it stood for. i just think a movie based on a freaking subpar amusement park ride is worthless and the movie had no entertaining value to me. plus the last scene with the monkey screamed "SEEEEEQUEL" and pissed me off to no end. the only thing that intrigues me with this second one is that keith richards apparently makes a cameo. and that is kind of awesome.

Huh? This is one of the greatest rides ever.

Keef will be in Pirates III

Or maybe she's just skinny and always has been.

Yeah!

Yes

No!
I saw the first one opening night. It was unexpectedly really great.

I like the internal hipster battle of anti-capitalist cynicism vs. love of johnny depp so many of us engage in.

I'd rather walk the plank than be shanghai'd into seeing this. </gene shalit>

oh, also, i dislike johnny depp. and he's really the only "good" part of the movie. but bill neigh is in this second one and he's kind of great. keith will be in the third one, but i hear he makes an appearance in this one. shrug. just what i heard.

Very nice.

She always has been, but her arms have gotten real bony and her ribs and are popping out and she looks all fucked up, maybe she's just on coke.

I realize no one cares, but Chow Yun-Fat is in the next one. There's a chance I'll see that, but probably not in the theatre.

Ugh, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.

I could've sworn that broad was hot like two years ago. Right? Oh fuuuck.

Wrong about the first one, man. The first is a classic. The dialogue is what makes Depp's part, not his acting. His acting is great, but it's what he says that makes his character hilarious.

I could watch the first one a million times. My guess from what you wrote is that you will over analyze the second movie and hate it.

Just sit back and enjoy it. I used to be an "over analyzer" of films. Once you drop it, it's actually liberating.

yeah man, that's gross. What happened?


Oh and this second Pirates looks cool. I'll definitely be seeing it in the next few weeks once money permits. I totally did not expect to like the first one, but loved the hell out of it.

If I can ask - how old are you?

I'm 35, and when I was much younger I used to hit the theaters nearly every day. I even worked in one when I was 17-18, and it was around then that my tastes began to change. My expectations have increased along with my age, movie lengths and prices. I crave a well-developed story, believable characters, and thought-provoking dialogue. Even in a fluff piece.

Do I get my wish very often? Do you even have to ask?

Now, I wonder: should I allow myself to lower my expectations simply to waste 2+ hours sitting still in a dark room, being pandered to? Even if movies were free, isn't life too short to waste time on anything which fails to satisfy?

Unfortunately, I find it's somehow worse when you have to pay for the privilege of being publicly unimpressed. Often I find myself thinking, "I'm bored! But I'm not leaving this cinema until I get my money's worth!" If that thought gets loud enough, I'll surrender and march right the fuck up to the manager and demand my money back before the film's half over. Which embarasses the wife - especially as she's more considerate of other people's entertainment when we're in public than I am. Needless to say, I saw only 1 film in theaters in 2005. I haven't seen any so far in 2006. But I think if we stop paying Hollywood for rubbish, they might be forced to start working on better material.

Which is why I love home video: if I'm not 100% engaged by the film yet still curious enough to wonder how it all turns out, I can do something else while it plays in the background - like housework, or programming, or guitar practice, or scribbling with pastels... whatever. The only drawback: I really do miss theaters and the fun + excitement of being entertained along with a crowd.

Of course, I could have developed ADD. It's all the rage these days.

BTW - I enjoyed the first one as well, but it's a 3 out of 4 in terms of perfection. There are many flaws - including the underdeveloped charisma with pretty much every character except for Depp + Rush. I felt absolutely nothing for anyone else in that film. No happy, no sad, just kinda "oh, there were other people?" That alone would have would dropped any other film off my radar, but I did find myself being perfectly entertained by the 2 aforementioned performances.

I don't really like Depp that much, he is ok, but I really don't care about actors and stuff, and I loved the first movie. It was cool to look at, had Pirates,and was mindless fun.

Very excited about the new one, and will hopefully catch an early show this weekend.

Knightley and Bloom are insanely bland. Still, looking forward to the new one.

In the meantime, Gore Verbinski is putting together an impressively varied track record.

Movie was a big letdown. Full disclosure: I was dead-set on seeing Strangers With Candy or A Scanner Darkly yesterday but found out at the last minute that neither was playing anywhere in the suburbs at all, despite the fact that today was, as far as I could tell, the "wide-release" day for both. It's not like they're experimental, French art films. Both have big stars in them and were widely reviewed and got fairly-good pre-release buzz. But no, I guess they need to make sure they roll 'em out progressively... as if the incredible delays in their releases already haven't been enough!

But anyway, I wanted to see Pirates so we saw it at noon. What a dreary movie. Nothing, and I mean nothing happens for the first 45 minutes, and after that I was almost too frustrated and confused to even care. Depp is good, I guess, but everyone else is completely miserable throughout the whole movie, which is mostly set at night and in the rain. Well, two-thirds of it is. The other third takes place in a rowdy bar where there are a hundred drunk pirates fighting each other for no apparent reason. The most exciting part for me was a scene where some characters were playing dice. More silly fighting, chasing, double-crossing and some more stuff that doesn't make sense round out the end of the movie. The original was a joy to watch, maybe a 7.5 out of 10. This was like a 3. I'm sure I'll see the next (and hopefully final) one next summer anyway, though.

If you liked the first one a lot, you might as well see this one. Have fun.

Pirates gets record opening in UK

The sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean took £2.3m at the UK box office on its first day of release, Disney's biggest ever first day opening.

Advance ticket sales for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, starring Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley, topped the £1m mark.

The follow-up to the 2003 original is also expected to fare well in the US.

Some film analysts are predicting the film will make over $100m (£54m) in its first three days.

"It just has everything going for it to give it one of those openings that everyone is going to talk about," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of entertainment research company Exhibitor Relations.

The movie will open in 4,133 venues across the US, making it the third-widest released film after Spider-Man 2 and Shrek 2.

The first film, whose full title is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, made $654m (£353m).

A third movie is in the pipeline, starring rocker Keith Richards in a cameo role as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp.

Some observers have drawn comparisons between Depp's performance as the pirate and the 62-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist.

Now this simply isn't true, not even close. I guess you slept through most of the film if this is all you remember.

Anyway, I saw it last night. Good fun, but not great, and not as good as the first. I agree with whoever it was who said people should stop being so goddamned critical and just enjoy movies. Honestly, I feel a little sorry for people who get so hung up nitpicking films to death that they can't enjoy anything. I work with a guy like this, and he's a sadly humorless fellow who doesn't get much enjoyment out of anything because he's always looking for the flaws and problems. Oh well, his loss.

It's a big, dumb summer movie, nothing more, nothing less. The effects are phenomenal (until a certain key scene toward the end), and it's a good laugh. I guess that's enough for me.

You think that's bad, try wearing a corset.

They're both playing in Evanston, we might make it a double feature tonight.

'Strangers With Candy' is my favirote show of all time, but the trailer looked horrible and I just have a bad feeling about the movie, has anyone heard some reviews from freinds and not the lame ass critics.

Obviously, I was exaggerating. But this was definitely a darker film than the first, and as if the filmmakers thought the best way to do that would be to take a literal approach and strip it of all of the majesty and wonder of the first movie, replacing it here with lots of scenes set at night and in the fog. I remember the first having a wonderful sense of adventure and whimsy. This time around it was replaced by claustrophobic paranoia.

I really don't sit and nitpick my way through every movie I see but I was just so bored throughout most of this that I couldn't help it.


Worst movie quote of the decade, next to "What happens to a a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else!"

Saw this last night and I absolutely loved it... more epic, more funny, and more over the top than the first one. Yeah, a bit darker than the first one, but I think that was typical middle movie of a trilogy syndrome. If you had these movies, you hate fun.

Did anyone see Fantastic Four?

"That's my nose, genius--these are my lips."

This movie is too goddamn long. 2 and a half hours? No way am I going to see this. Unless it was for free. of course.

Wow? I hate fun? Well, that explains why I have all these IDM and jazz cds, I guess.

saw this last night and of course it sucked

Yeah, saw it this morning. Sucked a big donkey dick. Those sea creature pirates looked really stupid running around in the daylight, missed the cool bad guy Barbosa (Davey Jones blew), Depp isn't on screen enough to carry it, too long, Bloom is a pussy, and the chick is really annoying.

Two and a half hour set up for the third movie. Big let down.

You could tell the success of the first film was just some dumb luck, and the pressure to pull it off again was too much. The charm and wit of the first one (if you liked it) was sorely missing.

The Kraken was ok, but not really that great to take up two big sequences.

I'm really confused by how people are saying this "sucked", what exactly where you expecting? Believeable fight scenes? Oscar caliber acting performances? I mean... come the fuck on. These two movies have, without a doubt, been the most entertaining summer popcorn flicks in the last couple of years. Bill Nighy was great.

EDIT: I don't know, I had a lot of fun wathing this last night - I don't mean to completely dismiss other people's opinions... but I think some of you are too jaded for your own good. Learn to have fun again.



What did you expect from the middle movie of a trilogy in which the next one is already being filmed? I can't believe you expected anything else.

I guess it's the biggest opening of all-time in England and America, made 55 mil, topping the previous opening day record of 50mil by Star Wars III, glad to say I'll never see either film

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/days/?page=open&p=.htm

Not really understanding Alky's "why did you expect to be entertained?" defense.

That's not my defense. I'm just surprised that anyone that enjoyed the first film would find this one so deplorable.

That makes sense, in a way, but there's been a slight tendency toward summer tentpole sequels approaching or surpassing the quality of the original lately, and it may have given folks the hope that this movie might have done the same.

I think it came damn close to doing so. I guess my initial post came off a little more harsh than I meant it, but I still find it hard to believe people who liked the first would actively hate this one. I guess this one just hit on everything I like about the franchise - cheesy fight scenes that nod to classic swashbucklers (the rolling wheel scene), Johnny Depp fully swishy and over the top, laugh out loud moments that actually made me do just that (mostly thanks to Mackenzie Crook in his scenes), and some pretty cool special effects.

I have no desire to see this either, but if you're checking this out while in town, I'll go if you do. I didn't like anything but Depp with regards to the first one, either.