In a surprise from Disney the second major cast signing for Pirates 4 has been announced. The sidekick to Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow in the fourth film will be Zac Efron. Who you may ask, well, after a quick bit of googling he’s listed as “the hunk from High School Musical” which are their words, not ours. Apparently the actor told Disney he didn’t want to do another of the movies aimed at the tweenage market so to keep him under contract Disney has signed him to Pirates 4. While signed to play a sidekick it is planned that assuming the fourth movie makes enough cash he will replace Depp as the lead in a fifth.
While this is an obvious attempt to cash in on the High School Musical audience it may be unfair to criticize early the casting since we don’t know what role he will be taking or have any real measure of his acting talent. At least he is an actor where some movie franchises have taken rappers instead to play major roles just for the buzz, like Steven Seagal’s later movies for example. All we can say is good luck to the bloke.
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By now everyone and their dog should have heard of last year’s big award winning movie No Country for Old Men. If you did hear about it and still haven’t see it due to the whole western theme which is assumed by the title and the advertising you couldn’t be more wrong. I know someone who thought before seeing it that The Usual Suspects was a comedy, and this suffered from the same false advertising. Without giving away the entire plot No Country is a film about an average guy in America who while hunting comes across a lot of dead people and a bag full of money. He takes it and those who want the money back send a hitman after him to retrieve it. So instead of all the false symbolism surrounding the initial advertising stint this film is essentially like The Fugitive (even with Tommy Lee Jones) as one man runs while being hunted by another. Only this time there is a lot slower pace and the hitman is incredibly inventive. Apart from Jones there are no real names in this film but it shouldn’t put you off, indeed it helps where characters are concerned as they are more believable then seeing say, Brad Pitt playing a binman.
As a rule anyone who is into action films normally should avoid anything that wins an Oscar for Best Picture or Best Director (Lord of the Rings was a fluke change of pace). It’s not an official thing but normally if you take Cold Mountain it doesn’t end well for those who want a thriller or something without the feeling that Pride and Prejudice watchers will love it. This on the other hand, even fans of action movies will love. There is plenty of shooting, self-performed surgery and inventive killings to keep anyone happy with a slight hint of Die Hard to it. A quick warning though, the ending does feel like a ‘to be continued’ and the viewer has to remember a lot of what has transpired before it. Other than that it is an essential film like Chow Yun-Fat’s The Killer.
The DVD is a rather standard affair. We have a couple of featurettes with a rather self-serving feel to them except for the making-of No Country which does provide some insight and is worth watching. The DVD is out now and can be found in all the usual places.
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Watership Down (1978)
Warner Bros./Nepenthe Productions
Starring the voice talents of John Hurt, Richard Briers, Zero Mostel
Not Rated
Running Time = 92 minutes
Available Now
Allegory – a story in which people, things, and happenings have a hidden or symbolic meaning: allegories are used for teaching or explaining ideas, moral principles, etc.
And again, another vocab lesson has passed. Read on.
Remember 2-D animation? Yes, there was a time when animated movies were drawn and painted by hand, without the assistance of computers. It’s a complex process that employs hundreds of hours of work and detail. The end result is a series of moving drawings on the screen. Read more »
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