Wings (1927)

This the first movie to win best picture in the Oscars. Wings is a rather overlooked film. It's often thought of as extremely dated, but that seems a silly notion after you've seen it. Wings actually stands as one of the best films made about WWI - the amount of detail that went into the production is astounding. And we see a certain liquid that we wouldn't see again until the 1960s: blood. Not to glorify violence (which the film can probably be accused of doing without any argument coming from this sector), but the level of realism is greatly improved by characters who actually bleed when they get shot. The film is very graphic in the details of the violence of war. The dogfights depicted in the film are remarkable and exciting. At first, the human story seems a little trite. Two men, David and Jack, are in love with the same woman (played by frequent Harold Lloyd co-star Jobyna Ralston). She, however, only loves David, unbeknownst to Jack. Meanwhile, Mary Preston (played by "It" girl Clara Bow) is deeply in love with Jack. David and Jack struggle with the love triangle while they go to war, but are forced into a loving friendship through constant companionship in the air. Mary eventually goes to France to help the soldiers, working as a driver. You can't know how gorgeous Bow is when she's dressed in her uniform. As the film progresses, these characters become fully fleshed and their story is downright powerful by the time Wings ends. There are several scenes that should be remembered as well as any of the silent cinema's other famous moments. Early in the film, David and Jobyna Ralston are on a swing together. The camera actually follows them swinging through an ingenious and absolutely seemless use back projection. When Jack goes on leave in Paris, there is a great shot in a night club where the camera moves forward on tracks and goes between several couples (and through their tables) on its way to a very drunk Jack. There are also a ton of much subtler cinematic miracles happening throughout the film. Do catch this one someday. It's well worth your time.

Angelo

Pirates of the Carribean - Dead Man's Chest

Let me start off by saying how much I loved the first Pirates of the Carribean movie. I enjoyed it. It's not on my list of favorite movies of all time, but I still enjoyed it. Johnny Depp was brilliant, the story was fun, it was immensely entertaining, even Orlando Bloom didn't annoy me as much as he usually does.

It was nowhere near as good as the first movie and relied far too much on special effects and "gross out" moments. Disney made the mistake that studios often make when they have an extreme success with an action movie: they assumed it was the special effects that people liked, not the story or the characters. Where was Captain Jack? The movie was TWO AND A HALF hours long. You think they could have put him in it more, but no. His character was also rather one-dimensional in this film, having hardly any scruples for abandoning his friends and such. The plot was contrived and just plain dumb. Half the time I had no earthly idea what was going on. In fact, I kept poking my wife in the arm and asking, "Wait...what's happening?"

And don't get me started on the villain. He was a freaking OCTOPUS. All the CGI they used for the various undead things looked so cheesy. They weren't frightening in the least. What about Davy Jones's motive? Why did he want Captain Jack's soul so much? I was utterly confused.

Finally, what was UP with the whole romance between Elizabeth and Jack? What about Will? I know any woman in her right mind probably WOULD choose Johnny Depp over Orlando Bloom any day, but this makes the romance between Elizabeth and Will in the first movie pretty pointless. And their romance was most of the PLOT in the first movie.

So, basically, I hated this movie. It wasn't offensively bad, though.