INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (Originally Reviewed and posted August 16, 2009)

Let me just start off by saying, I love this Movie. Inglorious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s fantastical, outrageous, frustrating but ultimately audacious rewriting of history. In one point of the Movie, Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, asks, "What shall the history books read?" Well, no history book is going to read this version of World War II.

The Film is divided into 5 chapters and chapter one begins in Nazi-Occupied France. Landa, known as the Jew hunter, waltzes into a quiet farmhouse to flush out hidden Jews. After drinking two glasses of milk, Landa, quietly, chillingly, calls his men in and has them shoot a Jewish family hiding under the floorboards. Only the daughter, Shoshana, escapes.

Chapter 2 introduces us to the Basterds, a group of American-Jews who are brutal avengers. Led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt, the Basterds pulverize Nazis by killing as many as they can, in the most hideous way possible, and then scalping them.

This movie is really brutal and I found it troublesome is that the violence has no moral values. Even though the Indian censors have edited out two and a half minutes of the gory scalping scenes, there are several grisly moments. The good guys, in this case the basterds, are as viciously cruel as the bad guys. In fact, there's one scene in the movie in which one of the Basterds, clubs a Nazi soldier to death.

Inglorious Basterds is a very violent but yet a very brilliant movie. It reminds me of shades of the Dirty Dozen (just a higher octane version of it). It has no emotional core but Tarantino’s mastery of the medium won’t let you look away. You will either love the movie or you will hate it. But don’t miss it. You might get scalped if you do.

AVATAR (Originally Reviewed and Posted December 19, 2009)

Before I even start on this review, let me just tell you that I was waiting in anticipation to see this movie by James Cameron. I have a friend that's a film critic and he got a special film screening of this movie last week. Told me alot about the movie but in a way, didn't tell me alot (I wanted to see the movie for myself). Here' what I have to say about AVATAR...

The movie “Avatar” is absolutely stunning to the eye and a pretty terrific movie — a full-immersion technological wonder with wonders to spare. James Cameron’s Avatar, becomes intentionally grueling in its heavily telegraphed narrative turn toward genocidal anguish, grim echoes of Vietnam-style firefights and the inevitable payback time sequence near the end. The movie really does look incredibly fantastic, whether it’s dealing with flying prehistoric-yet-futuristic birds or fluorescent mushrooms (I've seen people actually trying to grab at them)...the imagery in this movie is spectacular. And the 10-foot tall alien race known as the Na'vi were incredibly stunning...all CGI....and they blended beautifully well with the humans in this live action movie.

Our hero is paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully (played by Australian actor Sam Worthington), who takes over his late brother’s job as part of the Avatar Program on Pandora. This means he psychically controls the movements of his Na’vi-like avatar while confined to a coffin-like container. The program, which was originally designed for botany research, is overseen by his no nonsense boss played by Sigourney Weaver (She's as tough as Ripley in the ALIEN Movies). By lying in the coffin-like chamber and “Matrix”-ing his way into an alter ego, Jake regains metaphoric control of his legs, and his life. He is a changed man once he tastes Na’vi life and falls in love with his teacher and trainer, the female warrior Neytiri.


Before he can realize it, Jake is too late. There is a corporate Boss/Drone Selfridge(played by Giovanni Ribisi) and mean old Colonel Quaritch (played by Stephen Lang). Jake finds out that the two of them have no interest in anything but profits and carnage. There is a lot of slaughter of the Na'vi in the latter half of this movie but I found it pretty hilarious when Colonel Quaritch laid on some of the Iraq war parallels (references to “shock and awe,” and fighting “terror with terror” come to mind)...but there's more... At one point, Quaritch’s gung-ho/bullet biting arrogant self says, “I want this mission high and tight. I want to be home for dinner.”

In short...if you do decided to see this epic of a movie, I would suggest that you see it in 3D (IMAX if you can), because the 3D effects will blow you away.

SHUTTER ISLAND (Review originally posted Febuary 16, 2010)

My review is going to be short and sweet. But first...let me tell you, it is a must see movie. The movie starts off really slow and tells you about two US Marshalls, Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. As the story goes and the plot thickens...we find that Teddy Daniels (Played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is having Hallucinogenics about his dead wife and about his war past.
Daniels is out to prove that there is something very wrong with the Island and that he's out to show the world that the island he and his partner are on is doing scientific experiments on all the patients on the island.
The Story is well written and the plot gets even more suspenseful as Daniels gets closer to solving the puzzle of the island...only to find out that it is Daniels that is insane and that the Doctors (Ben Kingsley) are out to help Daniels (DiCaprio).
The Flashbacks in this movie help out in the story and near the end, it's easy to figure out why Daniels went insane...His wife killed his own children leading to Daniels killing his own wife.
What more can you say about a movie Directed by Martin Scorsese...Two Thumbs Up!

KICK ASS (Review originally posted March 31, 2010)

Before I start off...if you want to see the movie and you don't want to know what happens, please stop reading this blog because it's basically telling you the whole movie. Let me first start off by saying, this was a really good and fun movie to watch. The movie has very strong language and it will generated some controversy for its profanity and bloody violence, particularly from the character Hit-Girl.

The movie tells the story of teenage Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who sets out to become a real life superhero. Dave is your average kid with growing hormones as he fantasizes of becoming a superhero and making it with his school teacher. After Dave gets his superhero costume through the mail, he sets out to fight crime. Dave then see's 2 thugs trying to steal a car and as he's fighting these would be criminals, he gets stabbed by a knife and then later, ran over by a car.

Dave is then laid up in a hospital and to save embarrassment for trying to stop a crime, he convinces the paramedics to say nothing of his costume and pretends he was brought in naked. In hospital for several weeks he is left with metal holding his bones together which he says makes him look like Wolverine. He has also suffered nerve damage which gives him an above average ability to take a beating. When Dave returns to school, his longtime crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca), seems more interested in him. His friends explain she thinks he is gay and wants to take care of him. Lizewski goes along with this in an effort to spend time with her.

The setback didn't stop Dave from being a superhero, and ends up intervening in a gang fight outside a diner. Dressed in costume and using 2 fighting sticks, he fights off the gang. As the fight ends, a man who has been recording the event on his phone, asks Dave who he is, and he replies: "I'm Kick-Ass". The video is posted on the YouTube via the internet and soon becomes an internet phenomenon, making Kick-Ass an overnight sensation.

Dave then sets up a MySpace account so that people can contact him for help. While spending time with Katie, she admits that she was being harassed by a drug dealer, and Lizewski convinces her to ask Kick-Ass for help. He investigates and ends up in an apartment full of violent lowlifes who try to kill him. He is rescued by a costumed, sword-wielding young girl named Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), who kills all the attackers and then leaves to join her father, Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage), whose alias is Big Daddy. Hit-Girl (Mindy Macready) jumps across the rooftops and tells Kick-Ass to follow her, but he is afraid to jump, so they leave without him.

Later Kick-Ass is visited at home by Hit-Girl and Big Daddy who have tracked him from his MySpace account. Big Daddy tells Kick-Ass that he changed his IP address so that criminals couldn't find him that easily. Big Daddy also inform Kick-Ass that they can work together.

Meanwhile, local crime syndicate leader Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) hears of the deaths of many of his men, with many people believing that the new star, Kick-Ass, is responsible. In searching for Kick-Ass, D'Amico kills an impersonator whom he believes is actually Kick-Ass. Running out of ideas, his son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) suggests that he set up a new superhero persona ('Red Mist'), enticing Kick-Ass into meeting him. At first, Red Mist attempts to lead Kick-Ass to a warehouse to be killed by D'Amico's men. They arrive to find it on fire, and the men are dead; Red Mist retrieves secret surveillance footage hidden in a teddy bear, which shows that Big Daddy is responsible for the attack. Red Mist asks Kick-Ass to call Hit-Girl and Big Daddy for help, and they arrange to meet at a safe house. As soon as they arrive, Hit-Girl is sitting on a window ledge and Frank D'Amico shoots her, propelling her out of the window and on to the floor below. Kick-Ass and Big Daddy are captured by D'Amico's men and taken to a warehouse where the gangsters stage an internet broadcast, intending to unmask and execute the heroes. After they have been severely beaten and are about to be set on fire, the lights are shot out and Hit-Girl starts a gun battle, killing the villains, but a fire starts and Big Daddy is badly burnt, succumbing to his injuries after a tender moment with his daughter. Kick-Ass tries to convince Hit-Girl to quit, but she is determined not to allow the death of her parents to be in vain and makes one last assault on the headquarters of Frank D'Amico.

Hit-Girl enters D'Amico's headquarters and disposes of several guards by posing as a lost schoolgirl...one of the guards, she actually shoots him through the mouth. On the upper floor, she quickly disposes of the majority of the guards, but runs out of ammunition and is forced to take cover in the kitchen. Not willing to risk a direct confrontation with Hit-Girl, one of the henchmen grabs a bazooka stolen from Big Daddy's safe house earlier and prepares to fire (saying "Say hello to my little friend!"), but is killed by Kick-Ass, who appears riding a jetpack fitted with two Gatling guns (which was purchased by Big Daddy and Hit-Girl earlier in the film). After disposing of them, Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl move into D'Amico's office, and two separate fights ensue between Kick-Ass and Red Mist, and Hit-Girl and Frank D'Amico. While Kick-Ass and Red Mist fight until they knock each other out, Hit-Girl is overwhelmed by the older and stronger D'Amico. As D'Amico is about to shoot Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass appears with the bazooka and blasts D'Amico out the window, where he explodes in mid-air. Red Mist recovers and grabs his father's sword only to discover that Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are already leaving. They tell each other their names and say goodbye.

Both Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass retire from crime fighting, with Mindy living a normal life and attending the same school as Dave. Upon her first day in school, Mindy is approached by 2 bullies wanting to get her lunch money....Big Mistake as Mindy cracks her knuckles.

Another wave of superheroes have been inspired by his exploits. Red Mist is shown donning a new mask and swearing vengeance, saying "Wait 'til they get a load of me".

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Reviewed originally posted July 16, 2010)

Watching the previews, I thought for sure that I was gonna enjoy this movie...boy was I ever wrong.

First, let me start off by saying that Jay Baruchel killed this movie. Baruchel was trying too hard to be funny that the movie was already becoming irritating to watch. There were times I was looking forward to see the next scene without him. It got to the point where I was getting tired of the "look at me, I'm a nerd, ain't it cool" mentality that you see in a lot of movies. Personally, I think the movie would have been better if Zac Efron would have been the apprentice.

The story was pretty good but at the same time, very predictable. I'm not a big Nicolas Cage fan but I really enjoyed Nick Cage in this movie.
I also thought that the Special Effects were pretty good. This movie had a lot of potential...unfortunately it has it's short comings...namely the Apprentice.

The Blind Side (Originally Posted and Reviewed 2009)

I love this movie...I can watch it over and over again and never get tired of it. Believe it or not, my favorite line of the movie was the quote Michael Oher was talking about in courage...

Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake, but you're not supposed to question adults, or your coach or your teacher, because they make the rules. Maybe they know best, but maybe they don't. It all depends on who you are, where you come from. Didn't at least one of the six hundred guys think about giving up, and joining with the other side? I mean, valley of death that's pretty salty stuff. That's why courage it's tricky. Should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you're doing something. I mean any fool can have courage. But honor, that's the real reason for you either do something or you don't. It's who you are and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important, then you have both honor and courage, and that's pretty good. I think that's what the writer was saying, that you should hope for courage and try for honor. And maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some, too.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

There's a lot to like about Transformers 3, and ofcourse a lot not to like. This movie is designed to be a "4th of July Popcorn Eating Movie", with lots of explosions, Chicago getting destroyed, a very weak plot, and a lack of character development.

First off, the plot seem to contradict from the first two movies in the previous timelines.

EXAMPLE: If MEGATRON and SENTINEL PRIME formed a secret alliance, when did this occur? If I remember right (and I'm sure that I do) MEGATRON was frozen on Earth for a million years, at least according to the first movie. The Ark with SENTINEL PRIME aboard, crashes on Earth in the year 1961. What puzzles me and a lot of the fans of the Transformer Franchise is, how come the FALLEN (from the 2nd movie) didn't know about this Ark? These loopholes made the plot of the movie confusing, and very unpredictable (if you're into following the series up to this point.)

That being said, I tried to look at the movie with an open mind.

I've gone a lot of 3D Visual Movies this year and by far, Transformers 3 has the best 3D I've seen so far this year. This movie gets an "A" for the 3D, but aside from that, the movie falls flat in it's face in both character development and in plot.

Let's talk about character development. In Transformers 3, we are introduced to a couple of new characters.

First, we are introduced to a new girlfriend in Sam (Shia LaBeouf) Witwickey's life. Don't get me wrong because I think Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is extremely gorgeous but aside from being the 'Hot Girl' in the movie, her character as Sam Witwicky's boyfriend fell flat on it's face. Maybe it's me, or the fact that this was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's first acting job, but the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship didn't click and by all accounts seemed very fake.

Then there's Frances McDormand. She plays the role of the woman in charge of the Military and the CIA. She won't listen to anyone but if you look real closely, her character reminds you of the character 'Edna' in the PIXAR MOVIE "The Incredibles."

Also in the movie, John Turturro returns as Agent Seymour Simmons, selling books about Alien Invasions and we now find Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) now working for NASA in what he calls a Retirement Job.

As for the New Transformers/Robots...In the movie, we see 2 annoying little Robots, an Old Guy Robot that looks like he can spit in a bucket and a couple of Nascar Style Robots. This would have been a time to shine (for the movie) but instead these new characters were just thrown right at us without an introduction to them or where they came from. These Autobots could have used more Dialog to make the movie more entertaining.

TRANSFORMERS 3 was above average at best. It bothers me a lot that the Military didn't learned after the first movie that BULLETS DON'T WORK against these Robots/Deceptigons.

I also found the whole "Getting a job thing plot for Sam Witwickey" at the beginning of the movie and the NASA coverup thing, was either wasted or lost.

The movie was entertaining, but what we got was a decent scripted movie in the first half, and a "Balls to the Wall" John Woo type of movie in the second half. Whatever you do, don't try to make sense of this jumbled plot...cause to this point, I'm still confused.

All in all, there is a saying in the movie industry that goes, "A movie is only as good as it's Villian."

Unfortunately, the "Villian" of this movie was the poor script and the Director.

3 1/2 Stars out of 5!

Green Lantern

Synopsis:

This movie tells the story of Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern played by Ryan Reynolds.) In the beginning, we learn that Hal Jordan is a test pilot that has no fear...a lesson he learned a long time ago from his father who's also a test pilot but gets killed right before young Hal's eyes during a test run. He flies a Hi-tech warplane and matches it up against a DRONE plane that's suppose to be unbeatable. Unfortunately, Hal didn't like to lose and broke the rules of the fighter plane engagement. And though he beat the drone (which in turn cost the company millions) he also destroyed the Hi-tech fighter plane he was flying.

Meanwhile, in a far off galaxy, we learn of the Mighty Green Lantern Corps. They are an intergalactic police force that keeps peace and order throughout the universe. Unfortunately we learn of a presence known as PARALLAX that is powerful enough to defeat the Green Lanterns because it feeds off of fear itself. Parallax engages against one of the best Green Lanterns (Abin Sir) and injures him to the point where he knows he needs a replacement.

Upon crashing down to Earth, Abin Sir sends out an ORB to find a man that can overcome fear. This ORB eventually finds Hal Jordan, takes him to his spaceship, gives him the power ring and he later becomes in DC Folklore, the Green Lantern.

This movie was slightly above average at best. Story telling could have been better, and the cinematography could have used a little better direction.

Case in point #1(Story telling): They could have shown Abin Sir (the purple dying Green Lantern) crash down to Earth...instead what we got was just the finished product...the spaceship that had already crashed upon on Earth. When the ring was looking for a replacement for Abin Sir, they could have made the ring move around the planet searching for a man without fear (personally, I would have loved it if they had "the ring" pass by two of the future Green Lanterns we see in both the comics and cartoons today: Guy Gardner or John Stewart: )

Case in point #2(Cinematography): When Carol Ferris throws the ring towards Hal Jordan so that he can become Green Lantern and save the Earth, we see her throw the ring, but there's no movement...just a quick flashy throw. Hal snags it pretty quick in the air and the scene is over. The scene was so weak and quick that even I could have snagged it...or at least air and made it look like I grabbed it. They needed to show some movement...maybe "the ring" twirling in the air with a little slow motion to give it better visual effects. Instead, all we got was a toss and a catch...all in less than a second.

In closing, I just want to point out that this is NOT a 3D movie as it's hyped up to be. I know I shouldn't be comparing movies, but THOR had better 3D visual effects than Green Lantern. As a person that's always for the consumer...don't bother wasting your money seeing this movie in 3D or it's lack of it. See it regular and save yourself some money...just my 2 cents on that matter.

If I were to give this movie a grade, I probably would give it a C+ (or 3 1/2 stars out of 5.) If you know nothing about the comic book, then I highly recommend that you see it. But if you are a long time fan of the comic book series like I am, I personally felt the movie as a whole fell flat.

SUPER 8

"Super 8" is a throwback to the classic Steven Spielberg movies of yesteryear. Though Steven Spielberg only produced the movie, his influences are felt and J.J. Abrams does a fine job Directing this movie.

The movie in a way, is a mash-up of both "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" and "The Goonie's. " Throughout the movie, there is a continuous build up that leads to an unfortunately a very weak ending. Don't get me wrong...I love the fact that there wasn't too much CGI in this movie. In my own opinion, too many Sci-Fi movies today rely so much on special effects that their story basically falls flat...this wasn't the case with "Super 8." The movie had a great story to tell and there was a lot of good character development throughout the movie.

Everything about this movie breathes circa 1979....From the retro-clothes featuring funky bell bottoms and sideburns, to the classic sounds of "The Commodores" and their hit song "Easy."

The movie starts off with a group of Middle School kids, who are trying to make a movie for a film competition. They sneak off into the night and head towards a train station where they needed a location for a Zombie movie they are working on. Upon acting, the kids figured it would be a perfect film shot to get the train passing during filming. Unfortunately for the kids, a driver crashes into the train head-on and all havoc breaks loose. From people disappearing, to dogs leaving town, there is a sense of Area 51 Government Conspiracies throughout the movie. And the mystery keeps building because one see's what this creature looks like, until we get a glimpse of it from the Super 8 film the kids were using to make their movie.

Later in the movie, we learn that the creature is a victim...a victim that crash landed on Earth back in 1958. All the creature wanted was a little help to get off the planet but unfortunately, the Government and their Scientist wanted to experiment on the strange visitor from another planet. This made the creature turn against the Earthlings and in the end, he gets off into space in fast fashion.

It's a fun movie to watch and there is a build-up throughout the movie where you sense a very big ending, but I felt that SUPER 8, with all it's build up fell flat....that's just my opinion on the movie.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

First off, let me just say that this is a fun movie to watch. What stands out to me is the nostalgic feel you get while watching this movie, like you're in a 1960's James Bond flick with it's backdrop of the cold war, and people wearing turtle neck sweaters. This movie is a prequel of sorts and tells the story of how the X-Men were formed. You also learn the origins of how Professor X (James McAvoy) and his future nemesis Magneto (Michael Fassbender) came to be.

The movie starts off in the 1940's, with a young Erik Lehnshirr (Magneto) being separated from his mother in a Nazi Concentration Camp. Upon the separation, Erik uses his undeveloped mutant powers to try to destroy the metal gate that separated him from his family. Dr Schmidt, who later changed his name to Sebastian Shaw (Played by Kevin Bacon) see's the potential in Erik and tries to get him to use his power by threatening to shoot his mother. Dr. Schmidt eventual shoots his mother and changes Erik for the rest of his life...the man will never trust another human being for all eternity.

In America, we find a young Charles Xavier (later Professor X). He's learning to hone his psychic mutant abilities in the huge mansion he lives in. Upon sleeping, he hears a noise down stairs where he meets up for the first time, another mutant...a teenage and very blue chameleon shifting mutant Raven (later Mystique). Charles and Raven becomes best friends as they are growing up but you see a sense of self doubt in Raven because of her natural looks.

In this movie, we learn that Magneto's origins were hard and cruel and you get a better understanding of how his hatred towards the human race was formed. Xavier, on the other hand was pampered and always believed that both human and mutants can get along.

I did see a few holes in this movie, if you're into that sort of stuff:

In the movie X-MEN FIRST CLASS, we see a bullet that was deflected by Magneto that caused Xavier's disability leading him to be on a wheelchair. In the movie WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, we see Professor X walking, older, & bald getting the captive mutants on the helicopter. This may not seem like much to some people, but this was suppose to happen years later...which makes us all wonder, "what's he doing walking when he's suppose to be paralyzed?"

And speaking of WOLVERINE. Hugh Jackman made a short cameo appearance in the movie. In this scene, Professor X and Magneto are searching the world to recruit mutants and they find Logan drinking a beer at a bar. There reactions to him are based on Magneto able to pickup on the metal in his bones & Professor X able to read his mind. Huge Jackman played it well. The scene was pretty funny and got a huge laugh from the audience.

There are some really cool mutants in the film with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

We learn of Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), a mutant with monkey type feet that's also one of the greatest physicist in the world. Unfortunately, he has a complex about his features and tries to create a cure for his disfigurement. He comes up with a serum that backfires and changes him forever in Marvel Folklore as the blue colored Beast we have all gotten accustomed to.

And of course, there's Mystique (aka Raven) the blue chameleon mutant. Mystique's character is one that can't come to grips with the way she looks throughout the movie but later you see a relationship build-up between her and Magneto that makes the timeline fit in really well.

There are other Mutants in this movie like a man that makes tornadoes come out of his hands, a mind reader that can change into diamonds and a Red Devil looking mutant that can teleport from one place to another in a blink of an eye. One of the more impressive Mutants was the role played by Kevin Bacon (No...his mutant power isn't singing with the Bacon Brothers)

I'd also like to add that if you are into the EXTRA HIDDEN SCENES AT THE END OF A MARVEL MOVIE, that you please don't stay for the END CREDITS...nothings there (unless you want to waste a good 7 minutes reading the credits)

If you are a fan of the X-MEN, you will definitely love this movie. The visual effects are pretty awesome and there is a lot of action and explosions in this movie. There are also some good catch phrases in this movie...my favorite is when Charles Xavier talks about getting bald and sitting in a wheel chair. This eventually happens at the end of the movie. All in all, this is a fun movie to watch, so kickback with friends and family, grab a popcorn and enjoy the ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

This movie is called, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." The title can be a little misleading because throughout the movie, I've been asking myself this one simple little question...Stranger than what?

From the get go, nothing about this movie seemed to click. From the brash one-liners we are so accustomed to hearing from Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), to the spectacular choreographed fight scenes that left us hanging from the previous incarnations of "Pirate" movies.

If this is what this Franchise has turned into, then I'm afraid that I don't want waste my time and money to watch another sequel. Don't get me wrong, but I thought that this "Pirate" sequel should have been called "On Recycled Tides" due to the fact that Johnny Depp seemed less interested in playing the part that made him famous throughout the "Pirate of the Caribbean" franchise. To make matters worse, the Jack Sparrow character seemed to rehash some of the same old jokes way too many times in this movie, and after a while, it started to wear on you...kinda like a party guest that has overplayed his welcome.

Personally, I thought that this movie, with it's poor script, bad acting and terrible direction, had pretty good visual effects. It's just too bad that with a bad story line, they could have made the most of it by doing something a little original or maybe something fresh...like they did in the previous "Pirate" movie with the giant Hamster Wheel.

In the movie, we find Jack Sparrow in search of the Legendary "Fountain of Youth," while taking on old foe Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) who is now working for King George. In this new installment, they introducing a new nemesis...the Dreaded Blackbeard (Ian McShane.) Aboard Blackbeard's ship is a zombie crew and his second in command daughter Angela (Penelope Cruz.) Apparently, Jack Sparrow had a past with Angela but this poorly written script showed no spark between the both of them.

There are Mermaids in the film and I found one scene fascinating where the mermaids with all their beauty, became the attackers of a wild food frenzy shark-like attack. There is a romance between a young mermaid and a young cleric (played by Sam Chaflin) because in every movie, there has to be a straight man that looks good with his shirt off and a beautiful young woman to have something to talk about (...it's kind of a guy thing.)

I'm sorry to say this but, Penelope Cruz was not a good fit in this movie. I love Penelope Cruz...I think she's a wonderful actress, but her role in this movie was a huge yawner. As for Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)...it is unfortunate that all of his best lines were used in the previews.

Keith Richards reprises his roll as Jack Sparrow's Pirate father and even though it's short appearance, it was at least a small breath of fresh air to a movie most people thought was brought to a close after the third installment.

I love the fact that this movie was shot in 3D. My only problem...There wasn't enough 3D visual effects to save this sinking ship. And it begs you to wonder...is shelling out an extra $4 dollars really worth spending for the 3D effects?

On a personal note, It's time for this franchise to set sail into the sunset because realistically, I think this movie was made for one sole purpose...to make a lot of money during it's first week in theaters around the country.

As a movie goer, I found nothing very appealing about this movie. No matter how much or how good the 3D visual effects were, the story line fell flat short and the movie just seemed to drag on...unfortunately, the movie seemed to drag on for about 2 hours and 17 minutes.