Volume 04, Number 12
Movies
Movie News
By Bill Hersey
Movie lovers, which most of us are, should be in all their element with a wide variety of blockbusters playing on the local theater circuit.
First, Sony Pictures Entertainment held the world premiere of Spiderman 3 at Roppongi Hills—the film, as expected, is a real box office winner. This was followed by Buena Vista International Japan's press conference, premiere, and release of Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. For the promotion, Buena Vista brought in actors Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Chow Yun Fat, and Geoffrey Rush, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Gore Verbinski. Other friends here for the many events included Jerry's wife, author Linda Bruckheimer and Buena Vista International's Publicity Director Teri Ritzer-Meyer. I worked with Teri for several years when she was editor of the Hollywood Reporter. The Pirates press conference was standing room only at the Park Hyatt Hotel. In addition to the local press, there were large delegations of media from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as what looked to be a lot of Depp and Bloom fans.
Johnny felt playing Captain Jack was one of the biggest and best experiences he has ever had—"really fun". He said "Captain Jack will always be with me, and although this is the last film in the trilogy, I'm sure I can play pirate from time to time at home with my kids."
The director said Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) was great, but not easy to work with." You'd set up for a frame, but he never stayed where you put him. He'd just wander off, pick up something, and sniff it." Orlando, who started the series when he was 20 and is almost 30, said, "I feel like I've been a pirate all my life." The producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, said: "it's all been great, but this ends the trilogy. We're all really exhausted and really do need some time off."
By now Warner Bros. has opened the highly-acclaimed box office hit 300, and we'll have a rundown on the big promotion they did here in the next column.
Warner Bros. has a busy summer. Daniel Radcliffe will be here soon for the Japan premiere of Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. The world premiere will be held in London a few days later. Warner Bros. will do another big promo for their sure-winner Oceans 13. We, of course will cover all the related happenings.
As they (and I) so often say, movies are better than ever.
Movie Review - Pirates of the Caribbean—At World's End
By Mads Hanson
I loved the first two episodes of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy—they have great characters, a good star-packed cast, and a seemingly unlimited budget— all the right ingredients for a fantastic movie tailored to fans of the action/adventure/fantasy genre.
For the viewers, expectations were incredibly high for this, the third and final episode of the trilogy. And while Johnny Depp is still great as the quirky pirate Jack Sparrow, the lead in this episode is definitely Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) who appears to be the central figure in At World's End. She puts in a decent performance—and looks stunning as always—but she is not Johnny Depp at his best.
At World's End gets off to a good suspense-filled and action-packed start, as we are introduced to Pirate Lord Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) in Singapore. What follows is long segments of dialogue, weird dream scenarios, and lots of build up, but the movie is held together with amazing special effects-enhanced action scenes—be they few and far between!
All the characters from the first two movies still have you laughing this time around. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) are reunited on the Black Pearl, and Rolling Stones' Keith Richards makes an appearance as Captain Teague, the keeper of the Pirate Code. This is very fitting given that Johnny Depp attributes Richards as his inspiration when playing Jack Sparrow.
In parts it appears that the movie is trying to achieve too much on too thin a storyline. It seems that there are too many "big" roles featured in a story that doesn't give them all enough room to bloom. However, if you have seen and enjoyed the first two movies, you should wait for one of the rainy days about to be upon us, buy your ticket, a cool drink, and a large box of popcorn and go see the end of the trilogy, or is it a new beginning?