"Mermaid waters, that be our path"

If you could not already tell from the name of my blog, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is probably my favorite movie. I am not saying that it is the best movie I have ever seen, just that it is my favorite. No matter how many times they play it on the USA Network, I watch it every single time. I cannot help it, I love Captain Jack Sparrow. That being said, the second and third movies, while I will also watch them whenever they are on TV and find them quite enjoyable, were not nearly as good as the first one. 

This fourth movie was not as bad as the reviews have made it out to be, but not quite as good as the first. I found it very entertaining and if you enjoy the first three then I think you will like this one as well. The plot was definitely less complicated than in two and three. My only real complaint is that it was not quite as funny as the first three. 

"Does this face look like it's been to the Fountain of Youth?"

This weekend brings us the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane.

When we last saw Captain Jack Sparrow, he was stranded in Tortuga without his beloved ship, the Black Pearl, after having been again left by Captain Barbossa. Luckily, he had taken Barbossa's map, found a small boat and was on his way to find the Fountain of Youth.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Jack has a run-in with a former flame, played by Penelope Cruz, and he is not sure if she is looking for love or using him to find the Fountain. Along with Cruz's Angelica, he must go up against the infamous Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane, who is looking for the Fountain as well. We also welcome back familiar characters Captains Teague and Barbossa, Mr. Gibbs and, from the first film, Lieutenant Gillette.

"I've never lived closer to danger, but I've never felt safer...

I've never felt more confident, and people could spot it from a mile away. And as for this, the violence? I gotta be honest, it grew on me. Once you've taken a few punches and realize you're not made of glass, you don't feel alive unless you're pushing yourself as far as you can go."

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I have been a little distracted this past month with March Madness and skiing in Utah, but I am back from vacation and my bracket is completely demolished, so I am back to reality.  I know you have missed me!

Now, we all know that I am a little Bradley-Cooper-biased, but I really do not understand why Limitless did not get better reviews. I have to say, I really quite enjoyed it. It had a good plot that kept moving and kept you interested throughout.  Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a blocked writer who is presented with an "FDA approved" drug that will give him access to every part of his brain and all the fame and fortune that comes with those abilities.  The whole concept definitely poses an interesting question, or two.  First, would you take the drug in the first place, not knowing exactly what it would do to you?  And second, what would you do with your life if you could remember everything you have ever read or seen, learn any language in an instant, pretty much accomplish anything you have ever wanted to accomplish?  Obviously, there are also other twists and turns to the movie that you keep you engaged and on the edge of your seat, but I definitely left the theater feeling very motivated, like I could be doing so much more with my days.  Of course, that feeling did not really last too long :o) If anything, this movie proves what I have been saying for a while now, that Bradley Cooper is a leading man that can carry his own movie.

I also recently saw Rango, an animated movie starring Johnny Depp. It was a little slow getting started and a little more serious than I expected it to be, but overall an entertaining movie.  Below, is one of my favorite scenes:

You Ain't From Around Here



Rango
at MOVIECLIPS.com

Although, I have to say, the most interesting part of this movie was that it was not filmed like a typical animated feature.  Normally, for animated films, the actors record their voices in a booth and are separated from the rest of the cast at all times.  For Rango, Director Gore Verbinski actually had them act out the scenes together while he recorded their voices.  I am not sure that you could actually tell the difference during the movie, but it is certainly a fun fact!

Another Johnny Depp movie that I finally got around to seeing was Public Enemies.  Sadly, it was not very good.  The acting was a good as you would expect from Depp and Christian Bale, however the plot was just sooooooo slooooooooow!  Thirty minutes into the movie I was already checking my watch...and it was a two hour and twenty minute film! If you have not already subjected yourself to this movie, I would say you can definitely skip it.

On the other hand, Green Street Hooligans was a movie that I was not sure about going into it, but that I really enjoyed. It stars Charlie Hunnam and Elijah Wood and is about a Harvard undergrad who gets expelled, moves to London and learns about the world of football hooliganism. As someone who has recently gotten into American soccer, this film opened up an entirely different culture than what we are used to in the States. Being part of a firm, or supporters club as we call them, is more of a lifestyle across the pond than it is here.  It is about supporting your team, but it is also about your firm's reputation and defending that reputation against other firms. It was incredibly interesting to see what European football firms are really all about. If you are a soccer fan, you should definitely see this movie.  Even if you are not, it is an intriguing story and is worth the watch.

In other sporting news, regular season baseball officially begins for my Phillies on Friday! I will try to not let it get me too distracted from my TV and movie duties, but I am not making any promises :o)

Also, for those of you who are interested, Chris Despo's album is now available for sale at www.chrisdespo.com! It is not yet up on iTunes, but I will have that link for you as soon as it is available. I have pretty much been listening to the album non-stop all week and have to say that it pretty amazing.  He is my friend, so I am slightly biased, but I think that it is definitely worth checking out!

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to post them below. I especially want to hear if you agree/disagree with my reviews or think there are any shows or movies that I should not miss.

xoxo
c

p.s. Japan has been added to the list of tragedies currently in our world, so I once again give you my list of places to donate: 

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Habitat for Humanity
United Way
American Red Cross
World Vision
StillerStrong 
The Nature Conservancy
National Wildlife Federation 
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"You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are."

The past week and a half, I have been very distracted. My friend's older brother has been in the hospital and they are not totally sure what it is. they think it is transverse myelitis or vasculitis. He is intubated and semi-conscious and he has been getting better but it is little each day. I have known the family since I was three and he is like a brother to me, so it has been really scary and I have been spending time at the hospital, helping the family in any way I can and just trying to keep myself distracted so I do not think about it too much. Basically that involved a lot of Grey's Anatomy. In some weird way, it has helped. I do not know if it is just because it was familiar and meant I did not have to think very much or if the medical stuff had some kind of reverse effect and calmed me.

I had forgotten just how good this show used to be. I think it slowly started to get worse right around the time when Meredith died and then came back to life. Aside from the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's episode, the most recent season has been much better, but I still miss the original episodes.

I am not really sure how it helped, but it helped, so I kept watching. Seasons one through three in a week and a half. I did not get much else accomplished.

However, before my mental break-down, I did watch a few other things...

I went 19 for 24 with my Academy Award picks - I think that might be my record. However, it was a pretty predictable year, so I do not know how impressive it is :o)

I watched Michael Jackson's This Is It. I have to admit that, even though I was a child of the 80's, I did not really follow popular music. My mother mostly listened to show-tunes, classical music and sports and my father was an oldies man. I did not start listening to popular music until I was in middle school and I needed to know it to be part of the conversation. I obviously knew who Michael Jackson was, but I was not really a fan. By fan, I do not mean that I did not like his music, I just did not know it. I do remember watching the Thriller video at my best-friends house with her brothers, but I would not say that Michael Jackson shaped my childhood very much. That being said, I have since come to love his music and appreciate his influence in the musical community.

To be honest, over the past couple years, I have not even paid much attention to what he was up to. I think everyone heard about him holding his child out of a window with a towel over his head and about him potentially molesting children, but I feel like he had pretty much kept to himself these past couple years. And after hearing about how many drugs he was on when he died and how many issues he had, I did not know what to expect when I started to watch This Is It, and I was blown away. He could still sing! And he could still dance! It really is a shame that he did not get a chance to tour the world one more time, but I am glad that we got to see this last movie. The movie itself was nothing spectacular. It was literally clips of him and his dancers and band rehearsing. But if you like Michael Jackson's music or grew up in the 80's then you should definitely see this movie.

My mom and I also went to see Alice In Wonderland. The imagery was amazing and typical of a Tim Burton film and Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter and Anne Hathaway are always awesome. However, it was not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. Do not get me wrong, it was a good movie, just not as good as I expected.

I have also discovered an AWESOME new TV show. I know what you are thinking. How could I possibly watch more television?! Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR? :o) Anyways, it is called Justified and it is on FX Tuesdays at 10pm. It stars Timothy Olyphant, who you might recognize as Sam, the hot "twenty-something" that Carrie makes out with for an entire episode of Sex and the City, or as Fritz, the best-friend of Jennifer Garner's dead fiancee, in Catch and Release. In this new show, he plays U.S. Marshall Raylen Givens who is reassigned from Miami to his hometown in Kentucky. He now has to deal with an outlaw father, a church-bombing white-supremacist who is also an old friend and an ex-wife who works in his building, among other things. If you are not watching this show, you absolutely should be.

It has been a rough couple of weeks, but I have kept myself distracted and my friend is slowly starting to get better. All I can hope for is that his progress continues and he does not have too many more set-backs. Otherwise I might have to go out and buy seasons four and five of Grey's Anatomy :o)

xoxo
c

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