Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Movie Review

Starring Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brendon Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario, Kevin R. McNally, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Golshifteh Farahani and Orlando Bloom.
Written by Jeff Nathanson & Terry Rossio.
Directed by Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg.

★★½

Johnny Depp's mincing Captain Jack Sparrow is a constant. He never seems to grow or learn, regardless of what's thrown at him. Even death left him unchanged. Maybe that's part of the charm.

This fifth movie has Sparrow facing an old rival, Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), a Spanish soldier who'd tried to rid the sea of priates, only to be cursed for decades in the Devil's Triangle, tricked into there by a young Jack. When a destitute Jack gives away his magic compass, the spell that kept Salazar trapped is broken, and now he is free to seek revenge.

The first movie is still the best in the series, but it's arguable which one is the best sequel. I think this one ranks ahead of 3 & 4 and is about on par with 2. The knives were out for this one but it's actually enjoyable in many parts.

First, Bardem's Salazar is a great villain. A Javert who's been cursed to be the living dead, trapped in the Devil's Triangle. Second, the chemistry between the young love interests (Brendon Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario) is better than those two from 4, and maybe better than Bloom & Knightley. If anything, what used to be the best part of these movies is now its weakest. There's a lot of humor around Jack Sparrow that falls flat.

Oh, and after the credits, we get a stinger that signifies where Pirates 6 is going.

The Lone Ranger - Movie Review

Starring Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper and Helena Bonham Carter.
Directed by Gore Verbinski.

★★½

The Lone Ranger is one of those characters who's just about extinct.  I'm 40, and I barely remember him.  I mean, I know there was him and Tonto, and I'm pretty sure I saw an episode of the TV show before. I remember the Filmation cartoon from 1980 that rotated with Tarzan and Zorro.  I remember the William Tell Overture and "Heigh-ho, Silver!"  I remembered enough to know that the guy from this movie was not the Lone Ranger.

John Reid was a character who stood for justice in the Wild West.  He also abhorred killing and tried to take 'em alive whenever possible.  Maybe it today's age that seems too square or corny, whatever the word is, but rather than embrace the earnestness like in Captain America, they turn him into a sissy-man joke.  This Reid is a naive, foppish lawyer who even stand carrying a gun in a gun fight.  He's a dweeb who must be propped up by Tonto (Depp), a Comanche who has his own weird problems.

Remember Without a Clue? It was a comedic spin on Sherlock Holmes where Holmes (Michael Caine) was the face but Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) was the real brains behind the operation.  I wondered if this movie realized it was going the same route here. This is like a Tarzan movie that starts with him afraid of heights. (Even the poster tries to scoot him out of the picture.)

Aside from that glaring, gaping problem, for the most part I had fun at this movie.  And looking back, it was actually faithful to the source material in many other ways.  I watched the premiere episode and was delighted to see that the set-up was the same, with the group of rangers pursuing the outlaw Butch Cavendish through a canyon when they get ambushed and killed, thanks to a traitor named Collins.  The movie was even filmed in the exact same canyon as the TV show.

Reid now travels with the mask in pursuit of Cavendish. Tonto wants Cavendish caught too, for he believes him to be a wendigo, a devil who must be killed.  Meanwhile, the railroad's being built and you just know the head of the railroad company is going to wind up being the main villain that Cavendish happens to work for.  Progress, claims the movie, is evil.

Now this movie suffers the same excess problems as the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.  It goes for 2 1/2 hours, and it could easily trimmed ten minutes here, ten minutes there.  Helena Bonham Carter's part could have been cut completely, but she is here because her soul is bound to Depp's, and it provides the opportunity for the men to visit a whorehouse.  All Westerns these days must eventually visit a whorehouse while looking for the bad guy, just like how today's detective movies always have to visit a strip-club to crack the case.

There is a moment of movie magic, when things are looking dire, when the Lone Ranger arrives to save the day and ignite our climax.  The William Tell Overture kicks in, and I got fuzzies.  We're over two hours in, and finally "The Lone Ranger" has arrived!  The final 20-minute chase scene using two trains on parallel tracks was as thrilling as any action scene in any movie the past couple summers.

Gore Verbinski, who won an Oscar for Rango, his animated Western, knows how to stage scenes and execute them.

This movie isn't as bad as some critics have been suggesting. I can't honestly call it good, but I was entertained, and I'd rather see The Lone Ranger 2 over Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

Random Movie Stuff - 7/13/13

- Chloe Moretz will next star in If I Stay, about a teenage girl who has an out-of-body experience after falling into a coma.  She then debates whether to stay and live a difficult life or give up.  Moretz will next be seen in Kick-Ass 2 in August and Carrie in October.

- Morgan Freeman's joined the cast of Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall as husband-and-wife scientists working on artificial intelligence.  It also stars Paul Bettany, Kate Mara and Cillian Murphy.  It's set to open April 18, 2014.  It's the directing debut for Wally Pfister, cinematographer on such films as Moneyball, Inception, and the Dark Knight trilogy.

- Lawless co-stars Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke are reuniting in Child 44, starring Hardy as a member of Stalin's Secret Force investigating a serial killer loose in the Soviet Union.  It co-stars Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Joel Kinnaman (AMC's The Killing) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master).  It's directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House).

- Sam Mendes (Skyfall) has agreed to return to direct the next James Bond movie, now set to open November 6, 2015.

- Aubrey Plaza (The To-Do List) and Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) will star in Life After Beth, about a young couple dealing with the issues that come with her being resurrected from the dead.  Paul Reiser co-stars as her father.

Some New Trailers:

Christian Bale stars in the gritty revenge drama OUT OF THE FURNACE:



Jeff Bridges stars in the fantasy adventure SEVENTH SON:



Keri Russell stars in the light-hearted rom-com AUSTENLAND:

Despicable Me 2 wins weekend

For the weekend of July 5-7.

1. Despicable Me 2 - $82.52 million ($142.07) - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 3997 screens / $20,645 per screen
2. The Lone Ranger - $29.43 ($48.94) - 1 wk (BV)
 . . . 3904 / $7539
3. The Heat - $25 ($86.4) - 2 wks (Fox) -36.1%
 . . . 3184 / $7852
4. Monsters University - $19.59 ($216.13) - 3 wks (BV) -57%
 . . . 3739 / $5239
5. World War Z - $18.2 ($158.76) - 3 wks (Par) -38.9%
 . . . 3316 / $5489
6. White House Down - $13.5 ($50.48) - 2 wks (Sony) -45.7%
 . . . 3222 / $4190
7. Man of Steel - $11.42 ($271.21) - 4 wks (WB) -45%
 . . . 2905 / $3929
8. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $10.1 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 876 / $11,530
9. This Is the End - $5.8 ($85.55) - 4 wks (Sony) -33.3%
 . . . 2104 / $2757
10. Now You See Me - $2.77 ($110.42) - 6 wks (LG) -50.6%
 . . . 1606 / $1725
11. Star Trek Into Darkness - $1.31 ($223.07) - 8 wks (Par) -38.5%
 . . . 565 / $2319
12. Fast & Furious 6 - $1.02 ($235.44) - 7 wks (U) -58.2%
 . . . 617 / $1660
13. The Way Way Back - $.58 - 1 wk (FS)
 . . . 19 / $30,263

Despicable Me 2 looks to easily outdo its surprise-hit predecessor and be the highest-grossing animated film of the summer.  Monsters U is doing well, but DM2 should pass it.

The Lone Ranger, meanwhile, had a $215 million production budget and looks like it will fall short of getting that domestically.  Johnny Depp has a track record of doing well overseas, so this will need a lot of help in that department if it wants to break even.

Random Entertainment News - 5/7/13

- The Avengers 2 is slated for May 2015, but not all of the actors are pinned down, most notably Robert Downey Jr.  Downey made $50 million on the first Avengers and could wind up in the $70 million range for the sequel.  Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and others also haven't agreed, and Marvel may replace some of them if they can't settle salary disputes.

- Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is in talks to join Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.  Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) wrote the script, and it's set to open November 7, 2014.

- Johnny Depp (The Baker) and Meryl Streep (The Witch) are in talks to star in a big-screen version of Into the Woods for director Rob Marshall (Chicago).

- Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are teaming up for a remake of Guys & Dolls.  The original film version starred Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.

- Meanwhile, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill will return for 21 Jump Street 2, set to open June 6, 2014.

- Megan Fox will play April in a new live-action/CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Will Arnett co-stars.

- Jason Statham will star in a remake of Heat, not the 1995 classic with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, but the 1987 drama that starred Burt Reynolds.  It's about a gambler who takes on the mob after his friend is brutally beaten.  Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci. Jason Alexander, Anne Heche and Michael Angarano co-star.

- NBC has renewed five dramas for this fall - Grimm, Law & Order: SVU, Revolution, Parenthood and Chicago Fire.

- Angus T. Jones will not return as a regular on CBS's Two and a Half Men this fall.  Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer have signed new one-year deals to continue with Season 11.

Random Movie Stuff - 7/18/12

- Fresh off his expensive flop John Carter, director Andrew Stanton is returning to animation with a sequel to his own Finding Nemo.  It's set for a 2016 release date.  Pixar has Monsters University set for 2013, The Good Dinosaur for 2014, and Inside the Mind and Dia de Los Muertos for 2015.

- Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is in talks to play the Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, starring Chris Evans.  The Falcon helps the Captain fight crime via a special suit that helps him fly and enhances his strength.  He can also communicate telepathically with birds.

- Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) has joined the cast of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as Wiress, a veteran tribute from the Games.  Her character is nicknamed "Nuts."

- Johnny Depp will next star in The Grand Budapest Hotel for director Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums).  With his Thin Man reboot on hold, it'll be his next movie after The Lone Ranger.

- Robin Williams will play Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Butler, based on the true story of Eugene Allen, who served as butler in the White House from the administrations of Harry Truman through Ronald Reagan.  Alan Rickman will play Reagan, James Marsden will play JFK, and John Cusack will play Richard Nixon.  The cast also includes Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, Melissa Leo, Jane Fonda, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alex Pettyfer and Zac Efron.  Lee Daniels (Precious) will direct.

- Kevin Kline is joining Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman in Last Vegas, about four old friends who decide to have a bachelor party in Vegas for the one of them who's always remained single.  Jon Turtletaub (National Treasure) will direct.

- Vince Vaughn will produce and star in Gunslingers, about some iconic Wild West heroes who find themselves in modern-day Los Angeles.

- And here's a viral video for After Earth.  Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, it's a futuristic actioner where Earth has been abandoned and humanity has moved to a new planet, Nova Prime.  Will Smith and Jaden Smith play a father and son who go back to visit the now unknown, dangerous Earth.

Random Movie Stuff - 6/21/12

- Reese Witherspoon is going to star in a big-screen adaptation of Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus. I'm assuming they're hoping for Think Like A Man business and not What to Expect When You're Expecting business. No word yet if Morgan Freeman's going to star in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

- Charlie Sheen will be playing the President of the United States in Machete Kills, Robert Rodriguez's grindhouse follow-up to Machete. The sequel will star Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson, Jessica Alba, Zoe Saldana, Sofia Vergara, Michelle Rodriguez, Demian Bechir and Amber Heard.

- Red Tails co-stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard will reunite in The Butler, starring Forest Whitaker in the true story of Eugene Allen, who served as butler at the White House from 1952 to 1986. Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Minka Kelly, Alex Pettyfer and Lenny Kravitz co-star. Lee Daniels (Precious) will direct.

- Development has stalled on the planned remake of The Thin Man. It was to star Johnny Depp and be directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago), but Marshall's moving for a big-screen adaptation of the play Into the Woods.

- Shawn Levy (Real Steel) is going to produce a big-screen Sesame Street movie. This would be the third time the Childrens Television Workshop gang graced the silver screen. There was also 1985's Follow That Bird and 1999's The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

Dark Shadows - Movie Review

Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Moretz, Bella Heathcoate, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Gully McGrath, Alice Cooper and Christopher Lee. Directed by Tim Burton.

★★½

What is it with Tim Burton and a twisted tree on a cliff? All of his movies have that image in there somewhere. A tree, with gnarled branches, near a cliff. Even Big Fish had it.

Anyway, this eighth collaboration between Burton and Johnny Depp is a decent entertainment, even if it's more about visuals and dialogue than story. Depp plays Barnabas Collins, a 200-year-old vampire who's awakened in 1972 and must recalibrate accordingly. He finds his descendants hanging on their vast manor of a house, but barely. Their fishing business is on the skids. Ah, but Barnabas knows where the money's buried and he's determined to turn this family around.

There to throw a wrench in his plans is Angelique (Eva Green), the witch who cursed him and locked him away and has spent the past couple centuries making his family fail.

This is one of Depp's better characters under Burton's watch. Barnabas is an 18th-century aristocrat with some adjusting to do, and Depp's umpteenth variant on the Eurotrash accent still entertains. Most of the supporting cast is good in their less-flashy roles. (I just like seeing Michelle Pfeiffer get work).

The main problem for me was the ending, by which I mean the last twenty minutes or so. Tis a giant mess. Each thread is tied up, but the pacing and general clumsy execution is as though pages 80-95 of the script just said "Hijinks ensue."

I loved the early 1970's soundtrack. It's worth a rental, but you can wait until then.

Random Movie Stuff - 5/20/12

- Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy will star in a cop-buddy movie for director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids).

-  Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, The Ides of March) will star in John le Carre's A Most Wanted Man.

- Johnny Depp is playing Tonto in next summer's The Lone Ranger. After that he's going to be doing a remake of The Thin Man with director Rob Marshall (Chicago), and then he'll star in The Night Stalker, about a reporter tracking a serial killer but then learns it's actually a vampire. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) will direct.

- Frank Grillo (The Grey) has joined the cast of Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It stars Joel Edgerton (Warrior), Kyle Chandler (Super 8), Jessica Chastain (The Help), Jason Clarke (Public Enemies), Mark Strong (Green Lantern), Chris Pratt (Moneyball), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos) and Harold Perrineau Jr. (Lost).

- Atlas Shrugged Part II will open this October. It has a different director (John Putch) and cast, which now includes Samantha Mathis, Jason Beghe, Arye Gross and Paul McCrane.

Random Movie Stuff - 2/28/12

- Several Dracula projects are in development, the most recent being an origin story take from Jason Keller (Mirror Mirror).  There's also a Dracula Year Zero project, a apocalyptical Dracula movie, and a modern take based on Justin Cronin's novel The Passage.

- Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) will next direct Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy in Identity Theft, about a man who has his identity stolen by a woman.  Also, Horrible Bosses screenwriters John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein will make their directorial debut on Vacation, a semi-reboot that will follow grown-up Rusty Griswold taking his own family on vacation.  Chevy Chase will return as Clark, now a grandfather.  While Anthony Michael Hall was the most memorable Rusty, I'd kinda like to see Johnny Galecki (Christmas Vacation) return.  Ethan Embry and Jason Lively were the other two Rustys.

- Demi Moore will play a mother who realizes how disconnected she is with her daughter (Miley Cyrus) after reading her racy journal in LOL.  Thomas Jane, Ashley Greene, and Jay Hernandez co-star.  It opens this May 4.

- Principal photography has begun on The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J, Edgar, Mirror Mirror) as the Lone Ranger. It also co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner and Barry Pepper. It's written by Ted Elliott & Terry Russio and directed by Gore Verbinski, who all worked with Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean. It's slated to open May 31, 2013.

- Mike Tyson confirmed he will show up for The Hangover Part III, slated to open May 24, 2013.  Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zack Galifianakis will all be back, as will director Todd Phillips, who confirmed it will be considered the last installment of a trilogy.

- John Lee Hancock is in talks to direct Saving Mr. Banks, about Walt Disney's decade-long quest to get Australian author P.L. Travers to sell him the film rights to Mary Poppins.  Travers viewed Poppins as a personal work and wound up hating the animated sequences, vowing to never sell another title to Disney.  Early casting rumors have Tom Hanks as Disney and Meryl Streep as Travers.  Meanwhile Hancock is currently slated to next direct The Partner, based on the John Grisham novel.

And on the television front:

- James Spader is leaving NBC's The Office after joining the cast last year.  Executive producer Paul Lieberstein (who also plays Toby) said it had always been Spader's intention to just have it be one year.  If Mindy Kaling's Fox comedy pilot gets picked up, she'll be leaving the show as well (she plays Kelly, and is also a co-writer on the show).  There's also a possibility of a spin-off with Rainn Wilson's Dwight running Schrute Farms full-time, with multiple Schrute relatives showing up.


- Monday Night's Ratings:

Channel - Title - Viewers (in millions) / 18-49 rating

8:00/7:00

NBC - The Voice - 14.77 / 5.4
FOX - Daytona 500 - 14.24 / 4.5
CBS - How I Met Your Mother - 9.13 / 3.6
 - - - - 2 Broke Girls - 10.14 / 3.7
ABC - The Bachelor - 7.98 / 2.6
CW - Gossip Girl - 1.16 / .5

9:00/8:00

CBS - Two and a Half Men - 11.81 / 3.6
 - - - - Mike & Molly - 10.1 / 2.9
CW - Hart of Dixie - 1.4 / .5

10:00/9:00
CBS - Hawaii Five-0 - 9.44 / 2.5
NBC - Smash - 6.86 / 2.4
ABC - Castle - 9.06 / 2.2

Compared to other shows on the schedule, Smash's ratings are good, but not so much considering the drop-off from The Voice, which single-handedly keeps NBC a relevant network in the spring the same way Sunday Night Football does in the fall.

Random Movie Stuff - 12/7/11

- William Hurt is in talks to join Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) and Max Irons (Red Riding Hood) in The Host. Based on the Stephenie Meyer best-seller, it's about post-apocalyptic world where a girl has an alien soul controlling her brain.

- Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren will play husband and wife in Alfred Hitchcock & the Making of Psycho. Hopkins will play Hitchcock, the profilic director who had to scrounge for financing in order to make Psycho, which no studio wanted to touch.

- Angelina Jolie, whose directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey opens later this month, has her next two acting projects lined up. First is what's described as a scientific thriller for director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), and then she'll star in a biopic about Gertude Bell for director Ridley Scott (Robin Hood).

- Chris Columbus's 1492 Pictures have acquired the movie rights to Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Stoning of Soraya M.) will direct.

- Tom Wilkinson will play the main villain in The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) as the Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as Tonto. Director Gore Verbinski is working on getting the rest of those originally cast reassembled, including Helena Bonham Carter, Barry Pepper, and Dwight Yoakum.

- NBC is looking at Ryan Seacrest as a possible replacement for Matt Lauer on The Today Show.

- Harry Morgan has died at the age of 96. He's been in movies ranging from High Noon to The Apple Dumpling Gang to Dragnet, but he's best known for his Emmy-winning turn as Col. Potter on M*A*S*H.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - DVD Review

**

Starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Kevin R. McNally, Sam Claflin, Stephen Graham and Richard Griffiths.
Directed by Rob Marshall.


I would have been just fine to never again revisit the world of Jack Sparrow after the bloated At World's End, and now that On Stranger Tides is here, even with a shorter running time, a different director, the Bloom/Knightly subplot scuttled, two interesting new castmates (Cruz, McShane), maybe new life can be breathed into this franchise...

No, not really.

The joy I felt at Depp's new spin on the pirate genre is diminished and extinguished. I still hold that the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie is a blast, the second one's fine, and the third one wore out its welcome. The fourth one is some ways might be better than Part 3, but if I never really care what's going on, that can't really be true.

The plot of this centers around several powers that be pursuing the famed Fountain of Youth. Jack's still wanted for various charges, but now Barbosa (Rush) is working for the crown in seeking to obtain the fountain before those dreaded Spanish can get there. You also have the villainous Blackbeard (McShane) looking for it.

There's a mild romantic subplot between a missionary and a mermaid. Far less screen-time than if it'd been Bloom & Knightly, and the movie's better for it.

This made a billion dollars worldwide, so a fifth Pirates movie is inevitable. I'll probably treat that one the way I've treated this one. If I see it, I'll wait for the DVD.

Random Movie News 10/7/11

- Robert Downey Jr. will produce and star in the big-screen adaptation of Perry Mason. The 1950's TV courtroom drama starring Raymond Burr was based on a series of books, and the movie is going back to those source materials for the characters.

- Johnny Depp will star in a biopic about Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel).

- Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) has joined the cast of Paradise Lost. Directed by Alex Proyas, it's based on John Milton's classic about the battle between Michael (Benjamin Walker) and Lucifer (Bradley Cooper). Casey Affleck, Djimon Hounsou, Camilla Belle and Callan McAuliffe co-star.

- New Regency, in its deal with Fox, has picked up distribution rights to Broken City, starring Russell Crowe as a mayor who secretly hires a P.I. (Mark Wahlberg) to see if his wife's being unfaithful, but then she turns up dead.

Random Entertainment News 7/13/11

- Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Christian Slater, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Holt McCallany will star in an action thriller for director Walter Hill. Based on the book "Bullet to the Head," it's about a hitman and cop teaming up for revenge after two gruesome murders throw them together.

- Matthew Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) is joining At Swim-Two-Birds, about a 19-year-old playwright who starts seeing his fictional creation interactioning with real people in his life. Brenda Gleeson will direct and co-star. It also stars Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Gabriel Byrne.

- Johnny Depp might play Paul Revere in an upcoming movie. He also has plans to star in the big-screen adaptation of The Night Stalker. Depp also has The Lone Ranger and Dark Shadows on his plate, as well as, possibly, Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

- Tobey Maguire has dropped out of The Paperboy, and John Cusack has replaced him. He'd play a death-row inmate that a woman (Nicole Kidman) and two brothers (Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey) are trying to save. Lee Daniels (Precious) writes and directs.

- Walton Goggins (Justified) will play Ohio congressman Wells A. Hutchins in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln biopic, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.

- Ted Danson has joined the cast of CBS's CSI, replacing the departing Laurence Fishburne.

The Tourist - DVD Review

ll

Starring Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton and Steven Berkoff.
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

This is the kind of tale I could see Alfred Hitchcock batting out of the park with Fred MacMurray and Adila Valli in 1943. Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie seem like a dream paring, and yet their chemistry never ignites, and the movie floats along like a series of "movie star" shots on different soundstages and exotic locales.

Depp plays Frank, an American math teacher on holiday in Venice to recover from a broken heart. I never believed Depp was a math teacher, and even his being an American strained credulity. Jolie is Elise, a British spy, but she didn't seem to get much more direction than "Look marvelous, darling!" She meets up with him on a train in hopes that those spying on her will believe Frank to be her lover named Alexander, a thief who's made off with 744 million pounds. He is a decoy.

The director von Donnersmarck was behind the excellent The Lives of Others, but he is the wrong man for the job here. The pacing starts slow and never picks up. It's not funny so it can't be called a comedy. What little action there is goes through the motions. The stringed soundtrack is relentless. There were times I felt like I was watching the serious parts of a 1970s fish-out-of-water comedy starring Dean Jones.

But at least Timothy Dalton has fun.

Rango - Movie Review

llll

Starring the voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Stephen Root, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant.
Directed by Gore Verbinski.

If there's a better animated movie this year, then this is going to be a great year.

This animated Western comedy has its humor level seemingly more aimed toward adults than kids, but my kids still liked it. It takes tropes from several sources and uses them all for maximum efficiency.

It's about a lizard with a falir for the theatrical who finds himself in a small critter town named Dirt, where they need a new sheriff. The Lizard dubs himself Rango and makes up a heroic backstory. The town embraces him. Then the real trouble starts.

There are nods to Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, the Eastwood-Leone collaborations, and many more. But they're never done just for the wink and the nod. It enhances the story.