#9 Movie Seen - Pirates 4 On Stranger Tides

Yo ho and a bottle of rum! Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and I have to say that contrary to a large number of opinions, I found it to be jolly good fun. This fourth outing gets rid of the slightly annoying Keira/Orlando love story and replaces it with a double serving of Jack Sparrow, Barbossa and new pirates Anjelica (Penelope Cruz) and Blackbeard (Ian McShane who played the marvellously named Al Swearengen from TV's Deadwood).  The plot is relatively simple - Jack, Barbossa, Anjelica and Blackbeard (and new villains the Spanish - boo! hiss!) are all chasing the fabled "Fountain of Youth" for various reasons - but there are a few twists and turns along the way as you would expect from a Pirates movie. 

Johnny Depp is once again priceless as the mad yet lovable Cap'n Jack and Geoffrey Rush serves up some great ham as Barbossa.  The new characters don't get much to work with though, particularly "the Spanish" who don't even really get one standout character.  Pene Cruz does well though as the sultry and possibly double crossing Anjelica.  The action scenes are up to the standard of the previous films but one disappointing aspect was that most of the swordfights and action scenes are at night or very dimly lit so it is hard to make out exactly what's happening sometimes.  The 3D is not overkill and mostly fun with swords pointing at you etc.  Good new additions are the killer mermaids and the new ship introduced, Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, with a few cool tricks up its sleeve and a very ominous theme tune.

Don't set your expectations too high, just go with it and you'll find a film that's both fun and funny. Take plenty of supplies - this is a long one.  And as per the last 3 movies, make sure you stay beyond the (very long) end credits for a final scene. 

# 8 Movie Seen - Source Code

Apologies for the lack of updates and reviews of late, I've been unwell and busy, a bad combination.  A few films have slipped through my fingers and will have to be DVD rentals.  I was determined not to let Source Code be one of those though so I went tonight with my friend B.  I had high expectations of this, and luckily it lived up to them.  This was based on the fact that the director Duncan Jones' first movie, Moon, was such a great, original sci-fi film.  Old school sci-fi.  I strongly urge you to check this out (more info here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/). 
His second film is also well worth going to see.  Again it is an original storyline although many have compared it to Deja Vu which I haven't seen.  The plot appears to be fairly simple - a military helicopter pilot awakes in the body of another man on a commuter train that is about to blow up.  He has been sent there to try and find out who the bomber is and thus avert another tragedy occurring, but he only has 8 minute blocks of time due to the way the "source code" program works.  Although it appear simple, the plot ends up quite complex and the sci-fi is pretty "hard".  This ain't no time travel that's going on....we're talking about parallel universes using actual science based phenomena in a very plausible way.
This is another film where I don't want to say too much.  It's best to see it with as little information as possible and then have a good discussion with your friends about what it means and whether it actually works or not.  At the end I felt I was caught up in a loop trying to work out if it works or not.  In the end we thought it does, but there is some pretty good debate on the IMDB forums that might help if you're at all confused.
Despite being a sci-fi film, it makes a pretty good action thriller.  Jake Gyllenhaal is capable of doing the confused time travel thing very well (see Donnie Darko for earlier evidence) but also carries the big action scenes and the romance with Michelle Monaghan convincingly.  The backup from Vera Famiga and Jeffrey Wright as the people who are running the source code program is also great, although Jeffrey's accent is a little weird and offputting.  It would make a great Austin Powers villain but is out of place as a scientist trying to save a lot of people's lives.
Overall I felt the movie was great as there was a good emotional connection with the characters and the mystery was quite compelling.  The acting is top-notch, action was believable and the story was original and interesting.  Duncan Jones has done it again for me!
P.S. I just realise a massive coincidence! This was the 8th movie I saw this year at the cinemas, and it revolved around 8 minute blocks of time.  Spooky!!!!