Sci-fi that doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
movie review
Pieces of April (2003) 50%
Okay.
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) 70%
Nearly every attempt at humor is cringe-worthy, but the story is never uninteresting, and some good performances were turned in.
Hercules (2014) 50%
Basic badly-paced action flick. Contains just enough surprises to justify its creation. Also, Dwayne Johnson with Scott Stapp’s old hair.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) 70%
Good characters, good milieu, exciting story. Hard to screw up.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) 50%
Ruined the formula with cash and bad testing.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) 50%
Could have used someone on set (and in the writing or editing room) whose sole job was to say ‘no’ a lot.
Playing for Keeps (2012) 20%
Banal.
Frontera (2014) 80%
Bad decisions, good drama. Mostly believable. Somewhat shallow characterizations actually aid this as a morality play.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) 50%
The previous installments have established that neither misfortune nor death are of any certain consequence, so all the fighting and whatnot in this seems irrelevant. Combine that with an illogical plot, and it’s just plain boring.