Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Men Tell No Tales Trailer (2017) “Rough Seas”

Pirates of the Caribbean has to be one of the most unlikely franchises in movie history.  It’s based on an amusement park ride, had a critically acclaimed first installment and that film made Captain Jack Sparrow as iconic a movie character that modern cinema has produced.  Installments two and three, with the same writers and director, took everything that was good in the first film and completely ignored it, but both films and the fourth installment each made over a billion dollars.  It’s been six years since the fourth film, Johnny Depp has a much different reputation as does Captain Jack Sparrow, but Disney plopped down $230 million to make Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (as a Disneyland fan, by far my favorite title of the series) and they’ve already made it back.  It won’t reach the billion dollar heights of its predecessors, but it will probably make enough for an unnecessary sixth installment, and on we go.  Is Pirates 5 any good though?  Compared to some of the sequels, yes.  Compared to the original, it’s as tired as Jack Sparrow looks during the 135 minute romp.

Site Note: KT Undergoing Upgrade

Greetings, Time Killers!  You may have noticed some tweaks to the home page.  I’m moving some things around, trying some new things, and so if stuff looks wonky….I’m probably in the middle of messing the entire site up.  Perfectly normal.  One thing to note for people who read the Word Press page only, I’ve divided up the workload because I spend 1-2 hours a day on this blog and I can’t get to everything.  Casting news, posters, pictures, and general news will get published to the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/killingtime2014) or to the Twitter feed (@sleeplessdave), which now displays the last 10 news items on the site for those who hate Facebook and Twitter (there are enough of you that I am writing this, so you know who you are).  The addition of the Twitter widget will give WP site only readers the same kind of total access the Facebook horde gets.  The things I do for you all.  Keep stabbing minutes, you wacky little wombats, you!

The Management

My Favorite Scene: Man of Steel (2013) “Learning to Fly”

In two days, the DCEU looks like it’s finally going to get the blockbuster, critical success it desperately needed.  That success won’t come from Batman or Superman, but Wonder Woman, which at time of writing is holding at a stunning 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.  The film that began DC’s shared super hero universe, Man of Steel, remains divisive (though not as much as Batman vs. Superman).  Man of Steel is the only film I’ve ever reviewed twice on this site.  I really loved Superman Returns so this was a radical departure, but I gave it another chance, and I’m glad I did.  It’s flawed, but nowhere near so the next two DC films, and it has truly great moments in it.  My favorite scene in the film comes after discovering his suit and talking with Jor-El: his first flight.  Henry Cavill is so likable in this role (one of BvS’ greatest sins is painting him as the villain and taking that likability away).  I love how it’s not effortless for him.  He has to keep trying.  But when he gets it down, the pure joy on his face is priceless.  It’s human.  After all, how would you feel if you could fly?

“The Last” Fantastic Luke Skywalker Tribute Video

This month has been the 40th anniversary celebration of the film that started it all: Star Wars.  Seven more films later, with four more on the way (Lucasfilm has announced the third spin-off will be announced for 2020 sometime in June 2017), the film that started with a farm boy is coming full circle with this Christmas’ The Last Jedi.  “Who is Luke Skywalker?” is the central question that drove JJ Abrams to get involved with the sequels.  After only a brief, cryptic cameo in The Force Awakens, Luke looks to be as central to Episode VIII as any character.  We know he’s not the man Rey expects to find.  The first trailer for TLJ has him condemning the Jedi.  However, Hero Fan Productions “The Last” does a really fantastic job at recapping Luke’s journey, especially in highlighting the parallels with Anakin’s journey and where Luke went right and Anakin wrong.  I think TLJ is a continuation of the journey (we do have several decades of catching up to do), and I don’t think we’ll be saying good-bye to Luke until Episode IX.  Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is scheduled for release December 15, 2017.

Johnny Depp’s 10 Best Movies

Johnny Depp is probably the greatest actor alive that people are sick to death of.  It’s not that Depp still isn’t amazingly talented.  He has one of the best cameos in recent history reprising the character that started his career in 21 Jump Street and was promisingly menacing in a small role that heralded his entry into The Wizarding World in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  What people are tired of is the massively eccentric takes on characters like The Mad Hatter, Tonto, Willy Wonka, and even his best character from his best film: Captain Jack Sparrow.  Depp definitely needs to be kept away from Tim Burton for the rest of their careers because when they get together all they seem to do is feed the weirdest parts of their collective id.  So why was Pirates 5 a financial success if everyone is so sick of him?  I think it’s because they can tell he still has the talent that made him one of the most popular stars in the world, and they’re hoping he can find his way out of his Bermuda Triangle of personal eccentricity back to the actor he’s capable of being.