Black Mass was a decent movie however with this cast lineup and an interesting figure in the history of mobsters, I didn’t find it terribly compelling and as good of a performance Depp gives, his look was distracting.
The Professor as uneven as it was going from dark comedy to drama and back would’ve been fine but for me the ending really cratered and left a bad taste.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is another lackluster movie of this new franchise that, especially when we go to Hogwarts for a short time, made me wish I was watching the Harry Potter franchise instead of this one.
Sherlock Gnomes wasn’t awful or anything but between a limited gnome-world and humor that rarely, if ever, landed, it was a bit of a chore to sit through especially when it sounded like the actors couldn’t give two rips either.
The 80s Overdrive: 6 Movie Collection is just another re-package job by Mill Creek, a few triple dipping at this point. I guess if you didn’t already own any of these movies, and considering its low SRP, might be worth picking up, otherwise skip.
Unlike the recently released Transformers: The Last Knight, which was a dull movie in itself, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was at least passably boring and was mercifully only two hours long. But like Transformers, this franchise just needs to come to a close as neither is very creative or, worse yet, entertaining.
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a messy movie that, as the box office showed, never should’ve been made. The actors seemed uninterested and probably were in it to make a few (million) bucks, Depp especially, but beyond that, it’s such a thin story.
Black Mass, although decent enough, is a disappointment considering the subject and a well rounded and respected cast headlined by the versatile Johnny Depp. However, in the end it felt underwhelming and pedestrian which is a shame as filmmaker Scott Cooper could be a respectable director.
When it comes down to it Mortdecai is just a bad movie. None of the jokes worked and Johnny Depp’s latest outlandish performance is no longer charming and the respectable supporting cast is completely wasted. This is not even worth a rental. As for the Blu-ray, the bonus material is basic while the video/audio transfers are more than respectable.
This 10th Anniversary release of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is merely a repackaging of the old disc with commemorative packaging so if you already own this, or even the HD-DVD, there’s no need to pick this up. Outside of that, my opinion of the film hasn’t changed: I didn’t like it then and I still don’t like it today.
These five movies released by Mill Creek are merely cheap cash grabs that can be had at most Wal-Marts (apparently) for a mere $2.88 and trust me, you get what you pay for: no features, no real menu and basic audio/video transfers. I suppose if you only want the movies and couldn’t care less about the audio, it might be worth picking up.
On the surface Transcendence had plenty going for it but thanks to an apparently butchered script and a novice director, it turned something that could’ve been memorable into a laborious and tepid bore of a film. The cast is mostly wasted from the Depp’s malaise and supporting characters who are one dimensional and unmemorable while a veteran like Morgan Freeman is wasted and had a character who could’ve been cut.
The Lone Ranger might’ve been a good movie but on a much smaller and simpler scale but instead the filmmakers attempted to recreate some of the conditions which made the Pirates of the Caribbean movies monumental successes down to Johnny Depp playing yet another make-up wearing quirky character. The action scenes aren’t that fun and get a bit tedious.
One would think when you get Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron on the same screen and an intriguing storyline it would make for, at minimum, an entertaining science-fiction thriller. Instead, The Astronaut’s Wife is a complete mess with subpar performances, a story that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and direction that is at best sloppy.
The Rum Diary is the kind of film that doesn’t linger after it’s over. It’s not bad enough to mock or good enough to recommend, it kind of is just… there. Depp delivers another good performance but even he can’t save an undercooked screenplay.