Monday, May 28, 2007

Pirates, Warhol & Merienda

Yesterday the best beloved and I headed off along with the rest of Manila to catch the latest of The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, At World’s End. To say this is a popular movie is an understatement. Glorietta Mall, The Greenbelt and Power Plant Mall between them have 22 screens of which 14 were showing Pirates.

We elected to go to the Power Plant and arrived 30 minutes before our desired screen time only to find that we were lucky to get into the next screening and hour and 20 minutes later. This did give us time to indulge and have a merienda at Seattle’s Finest, cheese cake, ham & cheese croissant which were ok I guess and a couple of lovely mochas for $8.50. Interestingly for dinner after the movie we had Chow King Chao Fan take out, a firm family favourite, which for 3 servings cost $4.00, there was a hungry mouth waiting at home.

As with the other 2 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, At World’s End is a vehicle for showing the excellent comic acting abilities of Johnny Depp. The rest of the cast push the plot along in a pretty much B grade fashion not stepping out of their assigned stereotypical roles. Sort of matching the cheese cake & croissant had earlier, Ok, but nothing to write home about.

Depp’s, Captain Jack Sparrow is the laconic anti hero we have come to expect from the earlier movies, but given more screen time to do some solo physical clowning of the first order. Which underscores the self referential line from the film, “Is it planned or does he make it up as he goes along?” which is the hall mark of all good comedy.

Pirates is not totally froth and bubbles with its grisly open sequence and attendant voice over which brought thoughts of George Bush’s America to mind. Was this Disney Corp’s nod to their dose of cold feet that saw them let Fahrenheit 911 slip through their fingers? This opening reference was soon lost in the rock ‘n roll that ensures a healthy return on investment.

No doubt Pirates will be a multi-million dollar earner, whether it will set any box office records is yet to be seen. Unlike the Warhol’s “Green Car Crash” which went for $71.7 million at auction and, if the New York Times is to be believed, his “Turquoise Marilyn” which went for $80 million in a private sale, both in the same merry month of May.

Ah well, back to reality, a $20 afternoon of entertainment and food was value for money, can the same be said for the fat wallets as they wait for their bubble to burst? Pass the rum please.

The Power Plant Mall

1 comment:

REVAD david riley said...

Henry, we must be on the same wavelength again.

I went to see this film on opening day here in the UK (last Thursday) and I must admit I enjoyed it very much. I kind of like the B Movie feel of the series and Johnny Depp was as usual great, especially the surreal sequence with the ship, the stone crabs and the desert.

All in all a good afternoons entertainment.