I watched two movies this weekend. Make-up for last weekend.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
I'm still trying to figure out why this movie was over 2 hours long. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic either. I'm getting to the point where I think the Pirates franchise has run its course.
Parts of the film were entertaining. For example, when I die, I want to come back as a vampire mermaid. How cool would that be? The kids really liked the fight scenes. They swash buckled around the living room. Other than that, it seemed tedious.
My biggest problem was that they tried to follow too many story lines, and I didn't get any of them. Wait, that's not true. I understood Barbossa's desire to get revenge. But otherwise, I was confused as to why Angelica was trying to save her father's soul, and what the heck happened to the preacher?
Blackbeard was a very cool character. I'm a big fan of bad guys who are evil to the bone. They don't need motivation, just someone to kill. My favorite! Shame he didn't survive.
There were a lot of loose ends, and I'm desperately hoping they're not planning on making a fifth one to answer those questions. If they are, I probably won't watch it and won't ever get the answers.
If you enjoy the Pirate franchise, it was worth watching. Like I said, it wasn't awful, but it was a bit long. At least I can say I've seen it.
Fright Night (2011)
You may or may not recall, but I watched the original film a few weeks ago so I could compare and contrast. I have to say, Colin Farrell is a much more attractive vampire than the first guy, but the story line wasn't as good.
One of the major differences in this film was that Evil was the one who knew Charlie's neighbor was a vampire, not Charlie. It didn't work quite as well I didn't think. It seemed thrown together and like, Oh, by the way, he's a vampire. In the original, there was a lot more mystery and fear to it, more suspense.
As you can imagine, the graphics were better in the remake, but they didn't really add to the film. The magic of the first one was that they didn't have CGI to create the effects, it was models and makeup. The original was cheesy, but it was also creepier. As I mentioned in my post, the scene where Evil is transforming from a wolf back into a human was disturbing. There weren't any disturbing scenes in the remake.
My spouse didn't like it because they made the vampire "blue collar." In most vampire films, the creatures are elitist. Think Dracula, who was a count, or Interview with the Vampire, where they were the upper crust of society. Even in the original, the vampire had money and was more snobby. In this version, he was a night construction worker, which would explain why he slept through the day but was out at night.
I suppose vampires have their lower class. But I agree, it didn't work out as well. You'd think that after being around for 400 years, you wouldn't want to settle for a middle-class life. But what do I know? I've never been a vampire. Maybe it would make it easier to blend in to society.
This film was actually a little disappointing. It was longer than I expected, and parts definitely drug. If you're really into the vampire scene, you might enjoy it. The only thing that kept me interested was Colin. And that was tentative.
