I recently purchased and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and was hit with a sudden realization -on which I felt compelled to blog about.
It had been some time since I had give the Pirates films any thought and so over time I began to regard it as simple Hollywood tosh. And I have now identified that that is exactly what they are.... and it's great!
With the exception of 'the Curse of the Black Pearl', the pirates films are in fact mindless, action driven, sword swinging, theme less 'Movies' in which story and plot are suspiciously dodgy. They seem to hold no underlying message or theme and the story gets so out of control and ridiculous in can seem fairly laughable. And in my opinion that's EXACTLY what makes it fantastic entertainment.
The pirates of the Caribbean films are movies that you can just put on, sit back and enjoy the ride -pure entertainment.
I'll note a comparison to make my point clear. After watching 'Big Things' in production class this week I felt so drained of life and happiness I can't really convey. I won't go into too much but the film was what I would describe as pure NON entertainment.....But I'm sure it had a message or theme somewhere. After the soul crushing experience of watching this film I REALLY felt the need to watch a good entertaining film (to remind me of the quality of films). And my first thought was (you guessed it) Pirates of the Caribbean.
Sure, it may not have the depth of Citizen Kane or the classic artistic direction of Nosferatu, but it's a damn entertaining movie. I enjoy films that make you think of course but sometimes there's nothing better than sitting down and enjoying a kick-ass swashbuckling, epic, hysterical Pirate movie.
I can see it's flaws but I think it's power to entertain outshines them all.

Initially, when I first saw the poster and teaser trailer for Valkyrie, I didn’t think much of it. And to be perfectly honest, it was the fact that Tom Cruise was not only in the principle role but had kept his American accent. I realise this may be quite a prejudice reason to make an assumption on the film’s quality. However, it just seemed a bit odd seeing Cruise in a 1940’s Wehrmarcht uniform speaking in his own accent.

However, I was extremely shocked by my reaction to the film. My main worry about the accent issue was completely swept aside within the first 5 minutes. It opens with Cruise actually speaking German, which then fades seamlessly into English. I found this a really effective way of setting up the world of the film, and the way in which they were choosing to tell the story.

Once the movie started getting into the story I really enjoyed it. I was expecting the usual Hollywood ‘Pish’ –in which they’d turn it into Tom Cruise single handedly bringing down the Nazis. But the film’s realism and portrayal of 1940s Third Reich was scarily well done, I thought. You really feel the possibility of the principle characters being discovered.

The performances from the superb cast made for such an enguaging experience. The point in which the film really proves itself, however, is in the surprisingly emotional climax.

Criticisms I do have of the film are pretty much the obvious ones. Firstly, as the film is based on very famous and well known events, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed slightly at points. If you know your history, which I’m pretty sure most do, then it might strike some as a bit pointless watching the film –knowing the outcome of the plot.

Also, I think there were a few problems concerning characters. For instance, Kenneth Branagh’s character is set up as quite a major player at the front of the film. However, he disappears very quickly and does not reappear until the very end of the film. This I was fairly disappointed by as I thought his performance was great.

All in all, I was extremely surprised by how good a film Valkyrie was –turning out to be a far more intelligent piece of cinema than I believe it looks.