Reviews

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Disney ride becomes a full length theatrical hit that may be as if not more exciting than the ride. Pirates throws you right into the action and never stops.

We begin with a young Elizabeth Swann, daughter of Gov.Weatherbee Swann who's ship rescues a young Will Turner from a wrecked ship which was destroyed by our villains which I will mention later. Eight years fly by and Elizabeth and Will are young adults.

Elizabeth is set to be engaged with Beckett a side character in this who plays a more important role in the sequels to come. Jack Sparrow makes his "grand" entrance by sailing to Port Royale on a sinking ship, tries to commandeer a new ship, then rescues Elizabeth.

After his heroic attempt, it is discovered he is in fact a Pirate and is sentenced to death. That night, the villains seen earlier make their appearance in Port Royale as they are looking for cursed aztec gold which Elizabeth possesses. Believing she is the descendant to Will Turner's father who's blood was needed to undo the curse, she is taken hostage. Will breaks Captain Jack out of jail and they set foot on a journey that takes them to many places and battles. I will not spoil the rest.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is the first in a trilogy of movies based on the Disney ride of the same name. This movie features pretty decent performances from its actors; Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Kiera Knightly. It features some great swashbuckling action but some of the swashbuckling scenes aren't so greatly choreographed which brings me to some flaws of the movie.

Captain Barbossa really isn't that menacing of a villain. He is charismatic and charming sometimes wicked even, but he's no Joker, he's no Darth Vader, by far no Hanabal Lector. Sure the scenes were Barbossa and his crew turn into undead pirates are great example of the special effects in this movie, he really isn't a menacing villain and he doesn't have much of an evil plan. This movie is just meant to be fun. It doesn't have a complex plot, its a very simple plot even, but it is just meant to be good ole brainless(well I can't call this completely brainless though) summer fun.

Once you see this, you will be wanting to get on this ride again, I promise you. This is definitely one of the best Disney movies in quite sometime due to the declining quality of Disney movies excluding Pixar who has yet to make a bad movie to date. I give Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, despite the flaws I mentioned(the good by far outweighs the bad here), 10 swords out of 10! Coming Soon, my review for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean:At World's End. Which one will be the best of the three? Find out soon!

Usually, over-hype leads to disappointment. But in this rare case, expectations were surpassed of The Dark Knight. To me, its now my favorite movie of all time. It was excellent, every second of it! Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker. Absolutely amazing and he had less screen time than I thought he would but that made it perfect. He was indeed like the shark in Jaws but more morbid, more of a wild dog as Harvey Two Face latter calls him in the movie. Yes Harvey Dent does become Two Face in the movie. And no, he wasn't like Venom at all. He had more screen time than Venom and was better used. Aaron Eckhart surprised me in this movie and you will see a shocker from him in the middle of the movie that is Iron Man endingesq. Christian Bale shines as usual. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman even improved on their performances from the first movie. Gary Oldman also improved on his performance and he is quite the surprise out of many surprises in the movie too! And only one can wonder, if this is the perfect movie, how can you make a sequel to the perfect movie even more perfect? That question will be answered when or should I say if we see a sequel. Christopher Nolan is one of the best if not the best film makers out there. He knows what he is doing so let him do his job properly because many of you are the reason why Sam Raimi rushed Spider-Man 3 and included all those plots and useless characters!

Batman:Gotham Knight, a tie in Anime direct to DVD feature to bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight is a wonderful, well done, excellent piece. One of the best Anime features I have seen. It is slightly better than The Animatrix which is similar to Batman: Gotham Knight. Batman: Gotham Knight features six segments, each written and drawn differently.

Segment One, Have I got a Story For You: A group of youngsters at a Skateboard park tell stories about their encounter with Batman. Each one is different and there is a neat twist at the end. This one featured the best special effects of the Six and its also the lightest but you can't even call it that because the tone of the story is still pretty dark.

Segment Two, Crossfire: Two Gotham detectives, part of the new Major Crimes Unit or MCU which is ran by Lt.Gordon have different view points of Batman but their viewpoints are changed forever when they encounter Batman at a fight between rival mobs ran by Sal Maroni and a new comer, the Russian. The dialog in this one is the weakest but it makes up with awesome action sequences and character development.

Segment Three, Field Test: This story, we get to see and learn more about the gadgets Batman uses and his moral code when it comes to fighting crime and this one features more of the gang war between Maroni and The Russian. This one has probably the best dialog and character development of the six segments.

Segment Four, In Darkness Dwells: Batman hunts Killer Croc who was a victim of Scarecrow's fear toxin and experiments. During the hunt, Batman encounters Scarecrow and his "Cult". This one was probably my favorite despite the fact Killer Croc is not in this but a minute or two.

Segment Five, Working Through Pain: This segment explores Bruce Wanye's training he uses to fight crime and working with a local "witch" Cassandra who teaches him the techniques he will use to fight crime in Gotham City. This one has really good visuals and an interesting story, in fact this one was almost my favorite segment but the blood and gore is a bit of a turn off especially at the beginning.

Segment Six, Deadshot: Batman battles an assassin Deadshot. This one had the best pacing of the six and the final fight with Deadshot was brilliantly animated and fun.

Overall, Batman: Gotham Knight had its flaws but they were minor flaws and I highly recommend this DVD to any die hard Batman fan or to anyone who plans on seeing The Dark Knight.