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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Pirates 3): There has been an unsubstantiated rumor that I don't like the Pirate movies. This is not true. I guess I don't get what the fuss is about. Let me say now...that I LIKED Pirates 3...really I did! The last hour and a half is some the best special effects I have ever seen. You know the kind of effects that don't make you feel like you are watching effects. You aren't sitting there saying, "Nice effects," instead you are saying, "WILD!" One minute you are sitting there and the next minute you feel like you are the only one watching the movie in a swirl of action. Now that I love! For that...I take my hat off to this movie. AND during those effects are REAL pirate action. Finally, after 2 movies, pirates doing stuff pirates should do. Y'know swashbuckling and swinging from ship to ship with canons blasting away. All this during the stunning special effects.
That is where my kind comments end. And I would like to add that I am not the only one that doesn't see these movies as a big deal. I told my brother I saw this movie and he said, "Was it as lame as the other ones?" And someone at work said, "Did it suck?" In fact, after asking around...I haven't found the huge legions fans. The consensus being because these movies can't make up their minds (and real lack of pirate action). When Pirates 1 came out we expected...well...the ride. You don't take your name from one of the most loved rides at Disney and not make it as fun as the ride. Pirates 1 was a huge success partly because of Johnny Depp's over the top performance and I stand by my opinion that anyone could have played that part (I think Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor). Pirates 2 just started to get weird and ended way somber.
Viewing Pirates 3 I got confused. I felt like I really missed something in the last movie or two. I thought maybe it was explained how Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) came back to life at the end of Pirates 2 and I missed it. There he was traipsing through Pirates 3 and nothing is explained of this til half way through the movie. Also, I missed how the Davy Jones' locker thing was like some kind of limbo. We meet up with Jack Sparrow (Depp) on a ship manned by...himself, many of himself. It was pretty trippy, really. I am not going to give away the plot of Pirates 3 (not that I can...a co-worker and I confused the whole office because we couldn't get the story straight) but I will say that the supporting cast of Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy and Stellan Skarsgard (Hunt for Red October) were the real acting stars of this movie.
Back to how the movie can't make up it's mind...the beginning of Pirates 3 starts with mass hangings to prove what a bastard the bad guy is. Like we don't know this. A child is hanged before we even see the title. I was pretty shocked. If these were not going to be fun movies they should have changed the name.
MM 1/2M (out of 5 M's)

On Video:

Music & Lyrics: Love Hugh. Love Drew. Nuff said. Okay, I'll go on with the review! This movie got luke warm reviews and I just don't know why. Of course it would help...if they got it. People who will enjoy this movie the most are people that know 80's pop culture, especially music. The movie follows the present career of an 80's has-been. He was part of a pop music duo called, Pop! One member of the band went on to become very famous and the other...well, who cares? The movie is clever how it doesn't hide the fact that they are making fun of Wham! and those of us that were there for those times appreciate that humor. Hugh Grant plays the other guy from the duo that now plays Busch Gardens and Knoxberry Farm performing all those old hits to his graying fans. He makes no apologies for it...he knows what he is. He then is offered this opportunity to write a song for the current pop diva and she wants it yesterday. Enter Drew Barrymore, who comes in to water his plants and instead plants lyrics in his head. The pair work feverishly on a song for the diva and the rest is just fun to watch. I loved this film! Fun, nostalgic and with a great cast. Hugh Grant did all his own singing and the dancing was impressive. The filmmakers must have been inspired by his dance scene in Love Actually. Sit back and enjoy this one.
MMMM (out of 5 M's)

The following review is by the Super Mommy (guest reviewer):

The Fountain: Sometimes a great actor can rescue an otherwise unwatchable movie. Sometimes the sheer on-screen chemistry and passion of a leading couple can make a viewer overlook the short-comings of an unclear story line or befuddled director. Hugh Jackman's and Rachel Weisz's performances in The Fountain are almost one of those times. But not quite.
The always yummy Jackman pulls out all the stops in this movie to remind us that before he was Wolverine, bouncing around in a black leather jumpsuit and fake claws, he was a real actor. Jackman portrays Tom, a scientist desperately trying to defeat death before it steals away his beloved wife, Izzy. And Weisz, always watchable, is simply radiant as Izzy, who is slowly dying from an untreatable brain tumor. Unfortunately, you will have to watch a good 30 to 40 minutes of the movie before you are able to glean this essential, underlying plot. That's because mixed up in the modern-day scenes of Tom and Izzy are images of Jackman as a bald mystic traveling through space in a huge bubble containing nothing but him and a dead tree; and Jackman as a Spanish conquistador and Weisz as the Spanish queen who sends him off to the jungles of Central America in search of the Tree of Life.
This is a movie that could have been good if the director and/or writers were less concerned with achieving a Kubrick-like obscurity and mysticism, and more interested in giving the audience a plot they can follow. At the end - totally unforeseeable and impossible to spoil for you - the viewer is left with the feeling that the movie is still somehow incomplete. Or that you missed something. Which is a shame considering the obvious passion both the lead actors poured into their roles.
In the end, The Fountain leaves the viewer high and dry, thirsting for a satisfying - and understandable - resolution.

The movie mommy concurs with the Super Mommy on the review of The Fountain. Not only is it a waste of time but a waste of two of my favorite actors. I am afraid I couldn't really review The Fountain...I only got about 10 minutes into it.