Movies
For a Rob Marshall film it's pretty decent. There are some fun musical numbers, but the story is pretty lame, the acting is mediocre and Gere is a total miscast. Setting and montage are pretty good though, which at least saves this film from being a total misfire. Not great, but musical fans might get a kick out of it.
A worthy successor to the first film, but I didn't like that one much either. Bombastic music, lengthy musical numbers and that core Disney feeling. If you liked the first one, I'm sure this one will be a pleasant surprise, for me though it's just too sugary and way too focused on the musical elements.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Another live-action remake of one of Disney's treasured animated classics. There was a lot of buzz about this one, as a black girl (Halle Bailey) was cast to play Ariel. That turned out to be the perfect lightning rod to cover up the subpar quality of the film. I'm not sure what Disney is doing, but they need someone to spend their money a bit more responsibly. The story hasn't changed too much. It's still the tale of a young mermaid who falls in love with a prince and trades her mermaid traits to become a human. Her friends (a crab, and a seagull) remain with her during her transformation, but life as a human is not as easy as she'd imagined. Bailey can sing, but she's not a great actress. The bigger problem here though is the ugly CG and the atrociously designed underwater scenes. Hollywood really needs to do better. The rest of the cast isn't great either, the voice acting is terrible and the film is way too long. I can't imagine this doing justice to people's childhood memories, regardless of the skin color of the lead actress.Read all