Pirates 4...not so bad...

I am a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but after the disappointing third outing, it was with a heavy heart that I sat down to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. However, the comedic and swashbuckling opening quickly set me at ease and reminded me of the more straightforward nature of The Curse of the Black Pearl. What cheered me up even more was that there would be no return of the insipid romance of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, which was wrapped up at the end of the third film in the series.


The opening gave the ever-ingenious Depp the platform he deserved to once again showcase his most famous character, Jack Sparrow, in the best way he knew how; slightly drunk, hilariously mischevious and dodging death once again like a cat with 900 lives. This character has entered itself so firmly into pop culture that I am still shocked that Depp lost out to Sean Penn on the 2003 Best Actor Oscar. By the end of the first 20 minutes, I was happily immersed in the search for the Fountain of Youth story and all thoughts of the tedious At World's End had left my mind.


On Stranger Tides profiles a myriad of other A-listers, from Pirates veteran Rush to new love interest  Cruz. We even get some brilliant cameos from Richard Griffiths as the foppish King George, Judy Dench as a rich old dame who has a brief stirring for Jack Sparrow and Richards returning as Jack Sparrow's dear old dad, Captain Teague. None of the cameos are particularly required for the storyline, but it's like a walk through a period version of Madame Tussauds.

Cruz plays Angelica, a fearsome pirate in her own right, a true female match for Jack Sparrow. This character is enjoyable, if only for the fact that we do not have to watch fainting damsels in distress and can finally see a true pirate anti-heroine. Cruz has a great chemistry with Depp after starring opposite him in Blow in 2001 and their return does not disappoint. However, she is at her best opposite her on-screen father the infamous real life pirate, Blackbeard.


Blackbeard has once again been fictionalised and is being played by McShane (yes, TV's Lovejoy!!). McShane has a knack (albeit an annoying one for his co-stars) of stealing every scene that he is in. His performance is always grounded and despite the often mythical storylines and the fact that Blackbeard has been fictionalised and performed many times before, McShane plays him with a menacing realism. Blackbeard marks a return for the series to a more uncomplicated storyline and an authentic villain.
There is another young romance to fill the space left by Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley and although it is not as much of a focus as the Will/Elizabeth storyline, it is carried off well by newcomers Claflin and Berges-Frisbey. The pair play a doomed mermaid and a missionary who has been requested by Angelica to journey with her father's crew in the hope of saving her father's soul. Their parts are relatively small in comparison to the other pair, however they are infinitely more likeable (on and off the screen) to Bloom and Knightley. Look out for Claflin next year playing opposite Kristen Stewart's version of Snow White; it is possible that with these two roles that he could give R-Patz a run for his money.
Barbossa is dead, long live Barbossa. The second most infamous character of the Pirates franchise has to be


Rush's chameleon-like Captain Hector Barbossa. Fresh from his 2011 BAFTA win, Rush returns to a well-loved character with aplomb. Barbossa goes one step further than Sparrow's ability to dodge death, in that he actually appeared to die at the end of The Curse of the Black Pearl, but was clearly too valuable a cast member to let go. This character always manages to land on his feet, although in this film one of those feet is wooden as he now has a peg leg courtesy of Blackbeard. In the words of Rush: "Jack and Barbossa are like husband and wife ... if they ever pulled together they could rule the seven seas." Many critics quite rightly say that the series couldn't survive without Depp, but I would also argue that it would be greatly lacking without Rush's Barbossa, one of the greatest heroes/villains in modern film.


On Stranger Tides is a return to form for the franchise and I would bet on it being one of the highest grossing films of the year. Not only because of the history of the series so far, but that word will get out that this is a great little adventure in both the franchise and in its own right. There will be some sceptics who will claim that it isn't a good as The Curse of the Black Pearl, but it is still a great sequel and it is where the series should have continued after the first film. The continuation of the story is all dependent on Depp's willingness to star again and on the box office take, and I honestly hope that it achieves both so that I can carry on watching the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow.

"HIGHWAY 91" BLOWS ME AWAY!

I watch a lot of crap here at Brundlereview, most of the stuff that comes my way is the lowest of the low, DYI filmmaking at it's worst. I have to sit through crap like Mill Creek's TOMB OR TERRORS and DECREPIT CRYPT OF NIGHTMARES 50 movie packs in a week, so when Sonny Fernandezs' "Highway 91" came into my mail, I wasn't expecting much.

Now, I've heard of this Sonny guy before, but I never bothered to check his stuff out. I'm kicking myself for that now.

"Highway 91" is a brilliant zombie movie...one so good...I'd compare it to Romero's best.

Yeah, that's right, I said it. Now don't get me wrong, not everyone is going to feel the way I do. If you can't get past the budget and acting (the f/x are actually quite good) then you just won't be able to enjoy this. But for me, this is "The Evil Dead" of our generation. I really do think it's THAT GOOD. He takes his budget, which I'm guessing was next to nothing and he crafts a goddamn amazing movie out of it, hitting emotional beats most movies try for but never succeed.

The plot of the movie seems simple enough, a group of characters, starting out as three, but picking up more along the way, travel through a world that has been taken over by the undead and are simply trying to survive.

Cody Tergesen plays Brian, who opts for a bow and arrow to kill the zombies, extremely hot Liz Dockter plays Chloe, who mostly uses nives, and the director himself, Sonny Fernandez, plays Virgil, who uses a big, sledgehammer type weapon. When the movie starts, it's just these three, making their way across this apocalyptic world. Sonny sets up quickly that they each depend on each other for survival, when one of them gets in trouble, the other is there to back them up and pull them out of a jam. They have their rules that have helped them along the way and they stick by them, don't think "Zombieland" though. This movie doesn't copy or steal from any other film that came before it, isn't that something? An original zombie movie!

Eventually, our trio begins to pick up other survivors, Andre (played with a goofy likability by Aaron Swenson) and Sky (another hottie played by Kim Haarman), a boyfriend/girlfriend couple who have their own rules of survival as well as plucky Kiera (played by Jessica Helland) a girl who has been acting as a slave to a group of scavengers.

The characters are truly something special, and Sonny writes them like you wouldn't believe. He constantly surprised me with the directions that they took. Andre starts off as a braggart and at first, you think he's just a goofy guy who talks a lot of shit, when it's time to kill some zombies though, he proves himself a force to be reckoned with, Brian was a total asshole when the movie started, I hated his character, but I'll be goddamn if about halfway through the movie I loved the guy, and the best thing is, I didn't even know when it happened. It's not one moment where he says, "Ok, I'm not an asshole anymore." There isn't one defining...incident, Sonny is smarter than that, it's subtle and it happens through pure character development.

The best thing is, just when the plot settles in and you think you have the movie figured out, it throws you a curveball. The first one comes in the form of Eric (played with a creepy menace by Topher Williams, who also did some music, looks like everyone multi-tasked in this thing) what he does is heinous disgusting scary and unthinkable. It leaves you careening and wondering how the movie went from one extreme to the next, and Sonny keeps it coming. Just when you've got the film figured out, he does something else that completely gets you back interested. By the time the crazy cult leader Vecchio (a completely manic and amazing Justin Kavlie) a man who says by the grace of God he can stop someone who gets bit from turning into a zombie, I was having a blast.

He mixes in humor (wait until you see the cast when they accidentally ingest mushrooms, I was rolling on the floor) with grim terror...and does it effortlessly.

By the time the end credits rolled I realized that Sonny had made a movie that, despite all the zombie killing (and the zombie deaths are through the roof) and despite the gore (guts, brains, you name it) he made a movie that relies on nothing but story and character to get it through. I realized that conversations I thought were just throwaway talks were truly what mattered most in the film and by the end, these characters are not who they were when the movie first started. They changed...and THAT'S what the movie is about. Surviving, when you think you can't, facing hell and death of the people you care about, and having to go on.

Now let me bring down the hype a little bit. I promise not everyone is going to love the movie as much as I did. As much as I dug the people in the movie, I'd be the first to admit the acting isn't that great, some of the cast does a stellar job, others not so much, also those who want nothing but high definition fancy shamancy fucking pictures aren't going to dig this either. This is grainy and dirty stuff. It also runs a little long, but after taking time out to think about what he should've edited out...I really couldn't think of anything, but for the A.D.D crowd, this isn't for them.

But for those of us who are tired of the same old crap, the same old been there done that cliche ridden movie bull, where you know exactly what's going to happen, this is truly something special. I have no idea why more people aren't talking about this guy. He's done something amazing here and I'm going to buy the rest of his movie right now, if the trailers are any indication, he's an underground figure that needs to blow up now.

Highway 91 is going to be available soon, available exclusively from Amazon.com, I suggest you check there every day until it's for sale, and buy this badboy as soon as you can!

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER FOR HIGHWAY 91!