Pearl Harbor (2001) - Bay's stuffed war melodrama baloney

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A sensual romance between two very photogenic young specimens of the human race and a dramatic war-plane situation attracts attention on this poster for Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor

Two brothers in the US Air Force: SPOILER One crashes, - and everyone expects him dead, - so his younger brother takes over his lady. But big brother returns alive, - Oahu's Pearl Harbor air base gets bombed by the Japanese, - and the younger brother dies in the attack!

 

Pearl Harbor is written by Randall Wallace (Braveheart (1995)) and directed by Michael Bay (Bad Boys (1995)).

Handsome flight sequences stand out in Bay's otherwise horrid and history-distorting film that's both grotesquely overlong and filled with tawdry romance. 

 

Related posts:

 

Michael Bay: 13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner 

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!  

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 140 mil. $

Box office: 449.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.20 times its cost)

[Pearl Harbor premiered 21 May (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) and runs 184 minutes. Wallace was paid 2 mil. $ for his script. Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer requested a 208 mil. $ budget from Disney, who turned that down and also demanded the film have a PG-13 rating. Ben Affleck (Reindeer Games (2000)) made approximately 10 mil. $ from his performance, coming from a 250k $ salary and a 7 % back-end participation deal. Kate Beckinsale (Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)) was paid a flat 50k $ fee. Shooting took place from April - September 2000 in Mexico, Indiana, Texas, including in Houston, California, including in Los Angeles, in Nevada, Hawaii, including at the actual Pearl Harbor, and in England. Disney lavished a 5 mil. $ premiere for almost 2,000 patrons at Pearl Harbor. The film opened #1 to a 59 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 198.5 mil. $ (44.2 % of the total gross). It was the 6th highest-grossing film of the year. It reportedly later made more than 130 mil. $ on domestic home video sales in its first week of release alone. Bay's gross earnings pay reportedly eventually added up to 25 mil. $. The film has been lambasted for its countless historical inaccuracies. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one, for Best Sound Editing. It lost Best Sound to Black Hawk Down, Visual Effects to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Song (There You'll Be by Diane Warren) to If I Didn't Have You by Randy Newman from Monsters, Inc.. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 1.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Bay returned with Faith Hill: There You'll Be (2001, music video) and theatrically with Bad Boys II (2003). Affleck returned in Daddy and Them (2001). Pearl Harbor is rotten at 24 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Pearl Harbor? 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) - Wild ruckus in Verbinski's entertaining first Pirates sequel

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+ Best Action Adventure of the Year + Best Pirate Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year 201.44 mil. $ range

 

Exciting, fantastical scenarios and big, attractive stars lure from this poster for Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Beautiful newly wed couple Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are demanded executed, and Captain Jack Sparrow contracts a terrible curse that results in a raging Kraken!

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (The Lone Ranger (2013), both) and directed by great Tennessean filmmaker Gore Verbinski (Mousehunt (1997)). It is the 2nd film in Verbinski's Pirates trilogy, coming after Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and before Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).

The plot is almost impossible to recount, and the film is a bit messy with a hackneyed monster ending and a long middle sequence in which Orlando Bloom's (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)) Turner appears as yellow as bile. Despite the questionable color-grading job and excessive use of CGI, Dead Man's Chest is still a role-model study in franchise handling - and it's maddeningly entertaining. It has wacky, wonderful humor and a grand Hans Zimmer (The Son (2022)) score.

 

Related posts:

 

Pirates franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - Disney's tentpole franchise implodes

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Verbinski's sprawling Disney swashbuckler is a prime summer spectacle
Gore Verbinski: Rango (2011) - Verbinski's amusing family western animation

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - Disney's tentpole franchise implodes 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Verbinski's sprawling Disney swashbuckler is a prime summer spectacle 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 225 mil. $

Box office: 1,066.1 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.73 times its cost)

[Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest premiered 24 June (California) and runs 150 minutes. Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)) was paid 20 mil. $ for his performance; Bloom 11.9 mil. $. Shooting took place from February - September 2005 in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas, Dominica and in California, back-to-back with the third Pirates film, At World's End. Depp's stunt double Tony Angelotti was nearly killed in an free-fall stunt accident. He later sued Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer but the suit was dismissed. The film opened #1 to a record-breaking 135.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends at #1 and then another 2 in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 423.3 mil. $ (39.7 % of the total gross), selling approximately 64.6 mil. tickets there. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 98.6 mil. $ (9.2 %) and Japan with 84.5 mil. $ (7.9 %). The film was the year's highest-grossing, Disney's highest-grossing up to that point and the fastest to reach 1 bil. $ at the box office (63 days) at the time. It later made in excess of 320.8 mil. $ on the home video market. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning for Best Visual Effects. It lost Best Art Direction to Pan's Labyrinth, Sound Mixing to Dreamgirls and Sound Editing to Letters from Iwo Jima. It won 1/5 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Grammy, among many other honors. Verbinski returned with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), the next Pirates film and the end to his Pirates trilogy. Depp returned in At World's End; Bloom first in Love and Other Disasters (2006); and Knightley first in At World's End. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is rotten at 53 % with a 6.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - Disney's tentpole franchise implodes

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Johnny Depp in his Captain Jack getup single-handedly sells tickets on this poster for Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Well-known pirates must band together and find Captain Jack Sparrow in a new quest across dangerous waters towards one final, huge battle.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is written by Ted Elliott (Small Soldiers (1998)) and Terry Rossio (Shrek (2001)) and directed by Gore Verbinski (Mousehunt (1997)). It is the third film in the Pirates franchise started with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), with all the first 3 films being by Verbinski.

After two terrific, super-entertaining swashbuckler adventures, the third movie is a fantastically long, empty shell of a film. Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands (1990)) is back and self-satisfied as the at this point nauseating, 'charming' Jack Sparrow character. The plot almost completely went over my pirate's hat for the almost three hour runtime, but it is something about a strange, multi-ethnic, screaming pirate brotherhood. I failed to find the excitement in this, or rather the film failed.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has impressive effects, which wins the film its sole heart here.

 

Related posts:

Pirates franchise:Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Verbinski's sprawling Disney swashbuckler is a prime summer spectacle
Gore Verbinski: Rango (2011) - Verbinski's amusing family western animation

Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Verbinski's sprawling Disney swashbuckler is a prime summer spectacle 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 300 mil. $

Box office: 960.9 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.20 times its cost)

[Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End premiered 19 May (California) and runs 169 minutes. It was the most expensive film ever made at the time. Depp was reportedly paid 50 mil. $ + profit participation that reportedly netted him another 40 mil. $, making his total take from the film an incredible 90 mil. $. Orlando Bloom was paid 11.9 mil. $; Keira Knightley 5 mil. $. Star producer Jerry Bruckheimer was paid 5 mil. $ + an unknown profit participation deal. Shooting took place from in August 2005 and from March - December 2006 in Singapore, Utah, New York, Hawaii, the Bahamas and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 114.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained #1 for another weekend and then stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#2-#4), grossing 309.4 mil. $ (32.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 91.1 mil. $ (9.5 %) and the UK with 81.4 mil. $ (8.5 %). It was the year's highest-grossing film but only the 3rd highest-grossing in the Pirates franchise. It was the year's 4th highest-grossing in North America, behind Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Transformers. The film was released with 10 minutes censored out in China, where the cut scenes were of Chow Yun-fat's character, apparently thought to be offensive to the Chinese, (the film grossed just 16.9 mil. $ (1.8 %, or not even double the gross in Denmark) according to the official numbers from China.) The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Makeup, lost to La Vie en Rose, and Visual Effects, lost to The Golden Compass. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, among many other honors. The film sold DVDs alone in North America for more than 296 mil. $. The franchise returned with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Verbinski returned with Rango (2011). Depp returned first in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007); Bloom in New York, I Love You (2008); and Knightley in Atonement (2007). Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is rotten at 44 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End?

Con Air (1997) - Loud, dumb actioner coming in hot

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Fiery action and tough-posing male stars attract attention on this poster for Simon West's Con Air

A sympathetic prisoner (Nicolas Cage (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022))) is going on a prisoner air transport, which almost immediately goes completely wrong. Our hero just wants to get home to his family, but the maniacs around him are making that very hard!

 

Con Air is written by Scott Rosenberg (Air Time (1992, TV movie)) and directed by debuting Simon West (The Expendables 2 (2012)).

One may admire how in a Jerry Bruckheimer production such as this, an entire backstory is explained in a matter of minutes even before the intro credits end, so that the film can then proceed to play out without pause: From then on it is just hung up on a lot of idiotic scenes, stereotypes and general tastelessness. (Among much else, notorious real-life serial killers are in Con Air mere content for tacky one-liners.)

The entire star cast work as so many beams of hardwood squeezed into a wood-chipper here in an insanely dumb movie, which makes manipulative stabs into thin air. 

 

Related posts:
 
Simon West: The Expendables 2 (2012) - An over-packed action hot-air balloon
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess    

The Mechanic (2011) - West's dull, flawed action remake 

 

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 75 mil. $

Box office: 224 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.98 times its cost)

[Con Air premiered 2 June (Las Vegas) and runs 115 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 1996 in Utah, Indiana, Las Vegas, Nevada and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #1 to a 24.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5-8X-#4), grossing 101.1 mil. $ (45.1 % of the total gross). It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Sound, lost to Titanic, and Best Song (Diane Warren's How Do I Live), lost to My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, James Horner and Will Jennings from Titanic. It was also nominated for a Grammy. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. West returned with The General's Daughter (1999). Nicolas Cage (Time to Kill (1989)) returned in Face/Off (1997); John Cusack (2012 (2009)) in Chicago Cab (1997); and John Malkovich (RED 2 (2013)) in Cannes Man (1997). Con Air is rotten at 55 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Con Air? 

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) - Cage, cast and LA shine in wonderful Bruckheimer vehicle

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Nicolas Cage's intense stare, Angelina Jolie's sexpot stare and a promise of speed work their magic on this poster for Dominic Sena's Gone in 60 Seconds

When his little brother finds himself in really deep trouble, Los Angeles premier ex-car thief, Memphis, is forced to tread backwards and drive him out of his morass; by stealing 50 cars in one night - without getting caught!

Gone in 60 Seconds is written by Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity (2000)) and directed by Dominic Sena (Kalifornia (1993)), loosely remaking the 1974 mega-hit indie movie of the same name.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's (Chase (2010-11)) largesse is here perfectly combined with Nicolas Cage's (Bangkok Dangerous (2008)) larger-than-life showmanship, coupled with an ensemble cast with James Duvall (Mission Possible (2018)), Robert Duvall (The Conversation (1974)), Grace Zabriskie (George B. (1997)), Scott Caan (In Enemy Hands (2004)), Angelina Jolie (Playing God (1997)), Delroy Lindo (The Core (2003)), Timothy Olyphant (Meet Bill (2007)) and more. Marvelous car chases en masse and a fairly amusing script, which runs like a masterclass in structure and brother mythology, helps rev the entertaining Gone in 60 Seconds into the 6th gear.

Cage gives an interview about the film here

Cost: 90 - 103.3 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 237.2 mil. $

= Minor flop or box office success (returned between 2.29 - 2.63 times its cost)

[Gone in 60 Seconds premiered 5 June (Los Angeles) and runs 118 minutes. Development began in 1995. Shooting took place in Ontario and in California, including Los Angeles, from May - October 1999. The film opened #1 to a 25.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top % (#2-#4) and grossed 101.6 mil. $ (42.8 % of the total gross). While the film's Box Office Mojo site claims a 90 mil. $, a Slate.com article claims the 103.3 mil. $ number, (which could hint to the film going 13.3 mil. $ over budget), and the numbers make the difference between whether the film ranks as a minor flop or a box office success theatrically. It likely made a healthy pile of money on secondary markets. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches harder than this one. Sena returned with Swordfish (2001). Cage returned in The Family Man (2000). Gone in 60 Seconds is rotten at 26 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gone in 60 Seconds?