In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Walt Disney Pictures

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the day you will always remember as the day Kevin Murphy reviewed the reboot/fourquel/spin-off Pirates of the Caribbean; On Stranger Tides. Jack Sparrow is back, and this time theirs a lot more Jack than their was before. Will and Liz are not around anymore and now Jacks got a whole new crew as he sets of on his weirdest, drunkest and most slapstick voyage yet. But that doesn't mean at all that I liked it. 

Jack's back and badder than ever. 

After stealing the map that leads to the fountain of youth Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), is hired by King George II (Richard Griffiths) to act as a guide for his “old friend” Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) to find the fountain before the rivalling Spanish Empire find it. Along the way Jack runs into and teams up with on of his ex-lovers Angelica, who is the daughter of the most ruthless pirate in history Blackbeard. Jack gets ready for his most action packed adventure yet, as he sets sail for waters unknown.

In 2007, It was announced that the series had come to and end, but later on we learned that Jack was back. So Jack is back, but not many others are back, The only two characters that really remain from the previous trilogy are Mr. Gibbs and Barbossa who are still played wonderfully by Kevin McNally and Geoffrey Rush. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly are not around anymore and frankly I'm glad because we've seen all we've need from those two love birds. Yet I'm pretty sad that we are left without the wonderful and lovable comic relief that is Pintel and Ragetti.

On the other hand we have some new faces and new challenges for our anti-hero, Jack. The new female lead is played by Penelope Cruz, and she is a much more feisty and more fiery leading female with a real sense of fun, action and adventure that was just all talk for the lovely but sometimes boring Ms. Swan. We also have a new and typical pure-hearted hero Philip Swift (sounds like a Prince Charming name to me) who is a man of god and enslaved to Blackbeard. He's a tad boring and what I really didn't like about him was that it seemed like he was too much of a replacement for Will Turner. They could have made him a bit more original if the character didn't have as a large a sense of pride as Will did.

We also have a new villain and this one is apparently even more blood thirsty, power hungry and ruthless than old Davy Jones was. The new bad guy is one that many people have read about centuries before the Pirates of the Caribbean was built at Disneyland; Blackbeard the pirate. What makes this guy so evil is that he is in fact mortal. He has not achieved eternal life like other villains in the series but instead is on a hunt for it and will go to incredible lengths to avoid the horrors of death. Ian McShane plays his part wonderfully as a man who literally has no compassion for any living thing but himself and his trophy ship. I haven't seen a Disney villain this obsessed or hell bent as the Horned King from the Black Cauldron (1985). Ian McShane I salute you as a superb antagonist.

Apart from acting, the choreography for the movie was really good. Once again Johnny Depp proves to great with a sword and getting from one sticky situation to another without it looking old or tasteless. He always presents himself with a new challenge. New members of the cast also catch on pretty well to the demands of the series with the stunts and safety of doing a movie like this. Penelope Cruz for one proved to be a highly skilled with all her weapons, especially against old Jack.

So I would say that this Pirates is OK, it can be on par with the first one, and its plot isn't as confusing as Dead Man's Chest or At Worlds End. Blackbeard's violent nature means I wont recommend this movie for young children but for most teens age 14 and over id say its acceptable and non-pirates fans may be bored by it. Some of the old characters I liked are not round anymore and have been replaced with rather lacklustre or suck – up actors, but some of the new characters i thought stole the show. But Its still did like it. Its good but its no perfect. So this is the day you will always remember as the day Kevin Murphy gave an OK review to Pirates of the Caribbean; On Stranger Tides.

My Rating: 2.5/4 Shamrocks.

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Rio - Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios

From the creators of Ice Age comes not another Ice Age sequel, or short film about that squirrel that I can't stand, but something new, fresh and original that I loved and I think kids and adults will enjoy as well. “Rio” is the newest project from Blue Sky Studios, and I gotta say I was not disappointed like I was walking out of the past two Ice Age films.

A Hit!

A macaw named Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) that has lived most of his life in Minnesota learns from an Ornithologist that he is the last male of his kind and a female has been found living in Rio De Janeiro. Blu's owner Linda reluctantly agrees to take him to Brazil so he can mate with the female named Jewel. Jewel does not take much of a liking to Blu and has an evan lower liking towards humans since they are primarily responsible for causing their species endangerment. Things get worse for the two when they are kidnapped by poachers and chained together. Luckily the two birds manage to escape and with the help of Birds from around the city the two starts to understand how each other feels.

Rio, much like the city its named after was a very fun and exciting film. It had great animation, good story telling and a good selection of actors. As stated before at the beginning of this review this movie was made by Blue Sky Studios who also produced the Ice Age trilogy, Robots (2004), and Horton hears a who (2008). The first Ice Age was good because it was original but afterwards Blue Sky studios looked like it was running out of original ideas and the animation was looking a bit cheap. Rio I thought was a good reboot to their company and actually saved it with its good animation, and story.

The main character Blu voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, who is now most notable for his role as Mark Zuckerberg in the social network (2010). Comparing the macaw he voices to the father of Facebook he played the two shares the fact that they are nerds who are trying their absolute hardest to do what they want to do with their life. Blu is obviously a nerd who has the worst social skills with his own species. His female counterpart is voiced by Anne Hathaway who i hourly enjoyed because she has a really fiery personality and her negative attitude towards humans given Blu all the more reason to win her over since he greatly trusts humans. Their opposite personalities make for great chemistry.

The other characters I thought were good but to me I thought it was the leads that made the film enjoyable. George Lopez who voices a bit of a knock off of Too Can Sam and Zazu was enjoyable but near the end of the movie I got tired of him because he was getting boring much like all George Lopez characters. Will.I.AM and Jamie Foxx are also it the movie, playing rapping birds who are just so annoying and unnecessary, this is a movie about Brazil, not about rapping in the streets of LA. But I do have to compliment on the fact that the movie has a great deal of diversity in its actors.

Birds have been animated before in film but I found Rio to showcase birds relatively well through flight. When the birds fly they fly just like they would in real life, but this is mostly when their flying, otherwise when they are on the ground they act more cartoonish. But this is Blue Sky Studios and you do expect cartoons from the creators of Ice Age.

Finally this movie really does capture Brazil. From its rainforests to the streets of Rio for Carnival. The source of this is because the director is from Brazil and he gives this movie a sense of home flavour from his point of view. If this film were directed by a non-brazilian it would seem like its from a tourist point of view. The film evan explores into the darker areas of the country with the slum neighbourhoods and the desperation of an anti-hero.

Rio, wouldn't be my #1 favourite movie I've seen but I found it to be colourful, musical, fun and entertaining. Kids will love it, adults will like it, Brazilians will certainly like much more ethan the Simpsons episode “Blame it on Lisa.” Go see Rio and it will be a most enjoyable evening.

My Rating 3/4 Shamrocks.

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Arthur - Warner Bros.

What does the word remake mean? It means a piece of work that was made a long time ago has been upgraded with different materials to suit todays standards. The tale of Arthur was the story of a billionaire playboy from the 1980s with a good sense of humour but a bad sense of morals. Dudley Moore one of the United Kingdoms funniest comedians portrayed this lovable idiot Arthur in 1981, which he received an oscar nomination for the roll. 30 years have passed and Dudley Moore's classic character has been reincarnated into a little accident tI like to call Russell Brand.

Arthur is a billionaire play boy who has no sense of self discipline or common intelligence and can't do anything without the help of his nanny and surrogate mother figure (Helen Mirren). When his real mother blackmails him into the engagement to a wealthy but bitter eyries (Jennifer Garner) Arthur decides to prove himself as a common human being by doing what everyone else is supposed to do once they turn 13 (he's 30) get a job. As time goes by Arthur meets and falls for a local leaving Arthur with the life that was handed to him on a golden platter and a life he can carve out on his own.

Booze and Babies are a dangerous combination. Wait let me re-phrase that Booze and thirty year olds who wont wake up and feel the coffee. There are three types of movies I hate; 1) Remakes that are second or third rate compared to the original, 2) Pointless sequels that never needed to be made. 3) Movies that make references to better movies in an attempt to be either stupid or make a quick buck (Friedburg and Seltzer Im watching you). The new Arthur is #1, It was immature childish, bold and boring, and It was one of the few times I actually wanted to walk out halfway through a movie, before I thought of how my rival Jesse would think of me if I took the cowards way out and walk out halfway through, so i stayed and much to my dismay HATED this movie.

I feel as though I am wasting my time writing a review about a movie I hated so I will make this one quick. Russell Brand was awful in this movie; everything I ever loved about Dudley Moore has been choked out as leftovers for this piece of mouldy uneatable bread. Jennifer Garner on the other hand I found to be a queen of all dominatrixes and although she did scare me a bit like any good villain should do I still thought she bored me to death because she never gives up and doesn't come up with any new dastardly plans.

The only thing I really liked about this movie was the great Helen Mirren. She has a very dry sense of humour that manages to keep this movie from hitting a complete rock bottom. If it wasn't for her I would have died watching this movie do to its sheer boredom.

If you wanna see this cheap unnecessary remake thats your call to make, but please watch the original first, it will be much more enjoyable.

My Rating: 1/4 Shamrocks.  

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Source Code - Summit Entertainment

What happens when you combine thomas the tank engine with terrorist plans and a touch of some very bizarre time travel? You get Source Code, the high tech train ride that has you on the edge of your seat from when you get your ticket to when you get off at your station. I found this movie to be a mind bending adventure from start to finish and was not disappointed when I walked out while the credits rolled.

A decorated army pilot who served in Afghanistan awakens to find himself on a train heading for Chicago that is going to blow. After the blow Captain Colter Stevens wakes up inside a bitter cold chamber to find himself under there service of Source Code; a project that allows him to enter the last eight minuets of someone else's mind to prevent the accident. As he keeps going back to the 8 min he keeps learning more and that prepares him for the final confrontation.

It defiantly is an action and science fiction fusion that is in a class by itself. When these two genres meet, the action almost always overtakes the science causing the smart people in the audience to walk out expecting a movie with brains when what they got was explosions going off for two hours without a good enough explanation. Source Code, is actually a much better blend of the two because it is able to balance itself out without becoming overproduced or turning into a dull lifeless science documentary starring my old science teacher from high school.

The theme of Source Code is repetition. Most of the time whenever repetition happens in fiction and sometimes non-fiction it wears itself out and people loose attention/interest very quickly. With a movie like this they do repeat themselves bu they do it in a way that it doesnt become boring or cheesy. Whenever they do it in this movie they showcase it so that the main character played by Jake Gyllenhaal is given a new motivation in the mystery ever time he makes a mistake and has to go back.

Speaking Jake Gyllenhaal, I really like him as an action star. He is very smart, young and full of energy. His intelligence makes him very gifted in crafting together something smart and suspenseful for the audience to see without turning it into a boring two hour Tom Cruise movie.

My only complaint about source code was that I found it to go a bit under the line for an action/science fiction film when it came to the length. An action movie usually runs for at least two hours (more or less) and I thought they could have added a bit more to the story but I still thought it was a good enough movie.

Source Code is a great movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. I enjoyed it, my fellow critics enjoyed it, my friends enjoyed it, my dad enjoyed. So see it its a really good action film.

My Rating: 3.5/4 Shamrocks

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Sucker Punch - Warner Bros.

Hot babes with ammunition. Is this how I wanted to spend my tuesday night when all my homework was finished. Maybe on a friday night at a club down in Clifton Hills, but for tuesday cheap nights at the movies, sure why not. Sucker Punch, from the high head that brought us 300. It's about girls trapped in the harsh prison that calls itself a mans world or reality as some extremists would put it. Did I hate Sucker Punch; No. Did I love Sucker Punch; No. While some of my rival critics have disliked it to a high degree I on the other hand went into this movie with high hopes but came out neutrally.

A girl with no name known only as baby doll played by Emily Browning is sent to a mental institute for girls by her tyrannical step-father so he can get all her money after the death of her mother. The asylum is run by a corrupt business man who exploits the girls in the institute to wealthily and vile fat cats, for extra money. When her therapist tells her to that her mind can escape to its own world she meets a mysterious man in her mind who tells her of 5 things that will allow her to escape her physical prison, Baby Doll teams up with her cell mates to escape their living atrocity that is reality.

Coming out of this movie from a mans point of view you get the feeling that they are being very sexist towards men, when the movie was in itself directed by a man. This man Zach Snyder seems to be a metaphor for a very overproduced movie that has no end to its pointlessness and no beginning for its raw confusion to start with. Pretty much all of the females characters in this movie didn't really convince me as characters until or before a moment of severer crisis, the prime example being the lead female. Our collection of male characters on the other hand I found to be far too brutal and dark for a PG13 movie and their attitude (especially from the main antagonist) is far more suited for something like a NC17 movie. I found this battle of the sexes to be a very dull and unconvincing war with no clear winner in sight.

The first fantasy scene of the movie made my brain feel very numb and once it was finished I was like “how much more is my mind going to rot, I gotta find a good book.” So although my mind did rot at each of these fantasy sequences they did get progressively better. The best one being with a ferocious dragon who I wouldn't want to mess with.

On the positive side their were a few things i did like about it. Item 1: It has incredible visual effects such as the dragon I mentioned in the last paragraph, but the problem is they seem to rely on this a bit too much in favour of a visually appealing film instead of a film with a good story. On the subject of man vs woman this is the showcase of the film and thats how it goes from start to finish and the movie plays the message of man vs woman good but it seems to play it a bit too well for fiction. Perhaps my favourite character in this movie is the one man who is on the side of good. He's smart, funny and a great deal of help to anyone in need in the movie and his wisdom is what saves this movie from getting less than a 1/4 shamrocks.

So a movie like Sucker Punch is not a horrible movie in my opinion, its ok. My main rival in movie reviewing on the other hand hated Sucker Punch with a capital H, but I was a bit for merciful with it by giving it a small chance to prove itself. To me it didn't prove itself but I still thought it was satisfying to rent from the video store but not enough to see on the big screen and defiantly not enough to see in Digital 3D. Its worth a trip to the video store that all i have left to say.

My Rating: 1.5/4 Shamrocks.  

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Limitless - Relativity Media

Bradley Cooper looks like he came out of nowhere with the 2009 blockbuster hit the Hangover. True he was in a lot of movies before that but a movie like the Hangover is what really caught peoples attention. And now we are introduced to something as divine and abstract as Limitless. The tale of a man who tries a new type of drug that makes him feel like he is on top of the world only for him to go so high, he hits rock bottom.

A struggling writer Eddie (Bradley Cooper) is having a hard time focusing by not meeting his deadlines for his novel and missing out on rent. When his ex-brother in-law presents him with a new type of drug that lets him access every corner of his brain. At first this is really good for him as be becomes smarter and richer at the same time. However the side effects quickly kick in and it appears to be more than Eddie can handle.

For decades now we have seen movies, tv shows and read books about the cautions of doing drugs and the dangers of over using them. Sometimes its too much of a good thing and it backfires on you at some point in the future or its too much of a bad thing and it back fires on you from day one. To me you have to watch this movie all the way through to decide whether trying this drug or not good or bad for a person. Personally I don't do drugs and the only drug I evan bother to try is alcohol when Im relaxing. Eddie our centre of attention proves this drug is bad but the only way to really prove if something is bad is to do it yourself and acknowledge what you've done.

Bradley Cooper makes a really convincing addict, so much that If you watched one of those reality shows on A&E you would have a hard time telling which is real and which is fake. I actually found his performance so convincing that it makes some of the drug jokes on Family Guy look evan more cartoonish and childish than they actually are. Apart from Cooper the supporting cast consists of the poised, profound and powerful Robert DeNiro. As always DeNiro comes off as a smooth talking professional in whatever he does; from loan sharking to stiller stalking. This makes him very convincing character in Limitless as he himself both helps and destroys Eddie as the drug sinks deeper into him.

The movie is a bit too fast paced and at the same time you feel as though it will never end. At about one hundred minuets into the movie I was just hoping for it to end so I could get home, write my review and then go to bed so I could wake up, cook some eggs for breakfast and then off to class. Despite this I still liked Limitless for its intensity, action and message for too much of something. Its not my favourite movie of the year but its still enjoyable enough to see on the big screen.

My Rating: 3/4 Shamrocks.  

In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Red Riding Hood - Warner Bros.

In todays modern world there are two types of fairy tales; there are the ones that were read to us at bedtime every night by our parents, featuring lovable characters that little kids would love. The other is the one teenage girls can't get enough of, the one featuring hot young bad guys/anti heros fighting Wight some other guy to win the heart of the either not so pretty or pretty dumb heroine. Can you guess which one Red Riding Hood is? If you guessed the first one you are correct; A hundred years ago. The new Red Riding Hood is another pale, dry and childish teenage girl dream that makes me evan more anticipated for something much better.

In the retelling of the famous folk tale young Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is constantly stalked by the mysterious “Big Bad Wolf” who plagues the town. In every attempt to capture and kill the wolf he is always able to escape and take at least one taste of human blood. However the presence of Valerie gives the witch hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) the idea of unmasking the wolf as she does not scream in terror in the wolfs presence.

I am not a teenage girl and Im glad Im not because evan if i was i wouldn't enjoy this movie because Im too smart and too manly for it. Red Riding Hood is a disgrace to our childhoods because it takes every good and care free memory of all those stories we loved and warps them into a teenage girl fantasy about sex, darkness and more winey unlovable teenage sappiness. The reason they made this movie seems to be very clear. Its not about going to visit grandma and getting attacked by a wolf. Its about getting the ultimate thrill with the bad guy which is what I thought, but when I saw the ending I was about too throw up and vomit on the movie theatre floor. Im not going to tell you why because its just too sickening

For most of this movie I wasn't on the edge of my seat because I knew bluntly well what was going to happen next and for most of it I was bored out of my wits until the climax when I suddenly gained more interest. On the plus side though the movie does have a good opening sequence that is beautifully shot with great cinematography and as said before the ending has a good twist.

But still this movie is just plain awful, that is all I can say. Its a sappy retelling of a classic children's tale that made me want to cry out in pain. Tis movie (as they say on tv) sucks.

My Rating: 1/4 Shamrocks.