An American drama directed by Lasse Hallstrom, starring Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen and John C. Reilly.
A young man tries to take care of his family after his father died. His mother is morbidly obese and his younger brother is mentally disabled. A young woman arrives in the area and forms a relationship with the main character.
Very good and very much of the time. There are 2 points I want to make clear: 1. Leonardo DiCaprio is actually only slightly retarded. 2. The mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates) is not in acting, but was recruited because of her weight, to fit the role. There were some plot points to discuss as well. I liked Gilbert sneaking a repair man in to reinforce the floor under his mother's couch and sneaking to the chain store to buy a cake, but being caught by his boss of the local grocery store. I did not like the solution to the ending conflict and would have handled the problem differently, but it did lead the main characters to a life of vagrancy, which I approve of. It has been said that DiCaprio's performance can be difficult to watch and I agree. He seems to play the role too well and we all know he went on to star in Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). We need to differentiate intelligence and greed. Using your "pretty boy" appearance to star in major Hollywood films that make lots of money is greed. I rate this adequate because it's a great film, but can be disturbing to watch.
American swashbuckling films directed by Gor Verbinsky, Rob Marshall, Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Kevin McNally.
Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is a pirate who gets involved in many adventures, His trusted first mate is Gibbs, his competitor is Barbossa and they become entangled with a romantic couple of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. There is always some magical item being searched for, disputes over ships and supernatural enemies to contend with.
In typical Disney and Hollywood fashion, the first film was immensely successful. It was followed up with others which became stale and predictable very quickly. The plots were always interesting and Johnny Depp's performances always met my approval. I liked that there were many places, people and special effects. However, the moving set pieces got really old. I'm talking after Jack/Johnny and Will/Orlando first meet, seesaw floors should not have been repeated. It got to the point of Jack/Johnny being in a spinning guillotine. Some CG and compositing is nice, but having main characters based upon it is too much for a live action film (Davy Jones). Like Indiana Jones, I got a little tired of last minute escapes. I hope you like the theme music from the first film because all the others have it as well. If I were to pick a favorite scene, it would bo Jack/Johnny alone on The Pearl in Davy Jones' Locker. Regardless of how predictable and repetitive, folks say that the plots are too convoluted and I have found that watching these at least 2x all the way through makes them clearer. It also makes what was stale the first time even staler. I rate them adequate because they are relatively entertaining, the acting is good and the effects work.
An American western directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Johnny Depp, Lance Henriksen, Crispin Glover, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, Jared Harris, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina and Robert Mitchum.
An urban man goes to a rural town where he was promised a job, only to be denied. He spends the night with a woman whose husband comes home in the morning. A gunfight ensues and they are all shot. The urban man then steals a horse and wanders around the wilderness with a Native American called Nobody. The husband's father has meanwhile sent bounty hunters and ordered wanted posters to be posted.
This was my second time watching this and the ending left me wondering about when the main character dies. The video was all in black and white and the only thing that puzzled me slightly was the main character's POV without glasses was still in sharp focus. The plot was a little sparse, but even the minor characters were memorable. I don't write here to drag this out into forced over-analysis. I rate it adequate. You should really watch other Jim Jarmusch films.
An American drama directed by Jeremy Leven, starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway.
A psychologist who will soon be retiring gets a new patient. The patient says that he is Don Juan DeMarco and tells an epic life story which includes swashbuckling duels in Mexico, a visit to the middle east and numerous romantic encounters. Unfortunately, the patient's grandmother is found and says that he lived an uneventful life in New York and Arizona before being abandoned by his mother after the father's death in a car crash. The psychologist must discern fact from fiction.
Johnny Depp plays crazy yet again. His telling of stories kept me entertained for most of the duration and reminded me of Secondhand Lions (2003) and The Fall (2006). The story scenes had excellent sets and costumes. They featured more dramatic camera-work than the hospital scenes. The pacing was pretty moderate, with just enough fast to keep my attention and just enough slow to let the scenes sink in. The premise of discerning fact from fiction was not resolved, which I found slightly confusing. Overall, not bad. The cool story scenes earn this an adequate rating.
An American drama thriller by Johnny Depp with music by Iggy Pop, starring Marlon Brando.
A poor Native American man agrees to be killed for money to get his family out of the slum where they live. He is given a large amount of money and a week to live before he has to report back to his employer and have his death video taped.
The plot was very good and the characters were interesting. The style was very late '90s almost too perfect, but retained the late '80s/early '90s charm and realism. The pacing was a little slow, but you would want it that slow too if you only had a limited time to live. The camera-work was way '90s and cliche. There were some interesting questions to mention: Why are the Indians listening to Mexican music? How would it feel to have sex sitting on rocks? Why is a white man playing a Native American part? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, Johnny sure likes his screen time. Overall, I thought it was fairly well made and definitely held my interest. I rate it good. This would be one to watch.
A drama directed by Laurence Dunmore, starring Johnny Depp and John Malkovich.A noble finds a crappy actress and teaches her to be good.The whole thing was boring to me. All of the film elements that I discuss were mediocre. There was also that "new movie" deal of being "way too perfect". This can slide in among many other films as being o.k.
A horror directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp.A scientist goes to a town where people are being killed by beheading. He tries to find out who is behind these deaths and why.When I was watching this, all I could think about was the old Disney short and the song from it. This version is way overdone, but what do you expect from Tim Burton? The plot was obviously extended and altered in nearly every way. The characters from the original story are in this film, but do not play the same roles. For butchering a classic, I rate this bad.
A comedy directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro.A writer goes to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race for a magazine. He brings his attorney and a suitcase full of drugs. Obviously, the motorcycle race becomes irrelevant.Any time that I watch this film, it always makes me lust after stronger mind-altering chemicals. I see the men on screen enjoying things that I've never tasted and I want to experience those things. The style is great, as are the plot and characters. I can't lie to myself. I have to rate this awesome.
A science fiction directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder.An inventor makes a man from scratch, but dies before completing his work. The man ends up with scissors for hands and a door to door sales-woman finds him. She takes him home and tries to indoctrinate him into "normal" society.Let me begin by saying that this is one of my favorite films because of entertainment value. There are some quirks that I would like to point out. There is the idea of the anthropomorphizing machines and mechanizing humans. This is part of the new world order scam that's being pulled on us at every opportunity. They (the illuminati) want to put computer parts into human bodies to track us and control us. Stand by and watch and it will be so. Take action (like not buying into their crap and boycotting their companies) and we may have a chance of staying human. The location of the mountain with mansion on top is totally unbelievable because of it's proximity to the housing track. When the police are chasing Edward, they drive extremely slow, as if they did not mean to catch him, but to chase him away. This may be the case, as the cop says that he is worried about Edward and seems sympathetic to his problems. I do find that the pastel houses, clothes and cars were used in good taste to contrast the creepy mansion and leather-clad anti-hero. I will conclude by rating this good.
A thriller directed by Roman Polanski, starring Johnny Depp.A rare book collector investigates whether a book that a client has is real or a forgery. As he journeys and researches, he finds that each of the 3 copies of the book has 3 of nine original illustrations. Together, they can be used to summon the devil.The occult ideas implied by this film are interesting, but the film itself is dull. Johnny Depp is meant to play much more interesting roles than this. The plot barely goes anywhere, despite the vast journeys of the main character (who is totally static, by the way). That's enough about this. It gets a bad rating.
A crime film by Ted Demme, starring Johnny Depp.A boy from a working class family grows up to be a drug kingpin before retiring to jail.There's a lot of entertainment value in this and the plot is very interesting. The main character is dynamic as he changes throughout his life. The drug element also helps. I'm rating this good.
A psychological thriller directed by David Koepp, written by Stephen King, starring Johnny Depp.An author is stalked by a man who claims that his writing was copied.This was typical thriller stuff. Johnny Depp acts crazy, big deal. I thought it was mediocre, so it gets an o.k. rating so it can blend in with the crowd better.
A drama by Emir Kusturica, starring Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway.A young car salesman falls in love with an older woman who wants to fly. He moves in with the woman and has conflicts of interest with the woman's step-daughter and his relatives.Johnny Depp is pretty good at being weird, although he played normal in this film as strange things happened around him. The characters and plot were good, but there was an analogy about a fish with both eyes on the same side of it's body that ran throughout the film. I didn't get the fish joke. Otherwise, the movie was cool. I'm rating it good because I enjoyed watching it.
