Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
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Major and minor offbeats Johnny Depp and Amy Sedaris as Captain Jack and Jerri Blank, give their all
to their strange, lovable characters, Captain Jack Sparrow and Jerri Blank
to their strange, lovable characters, Captain Jack Sparrow and Jerri Blank
Oh to be a 12 or 13 year old boy again! That was the overwhelming thought that ran through my mind during the first half hour of
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The movie seems nothing less than the delightful heir to the Ray Harryhausen
adventure fantasias, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans. I’ll probably never forget the first time
I saw some of the effects in those pictures – the army of sword wielding skeletons popping up out of the ground or the pleasures in
watching Pegasus, the winged horse take off with the princess – and I hope the many tentacled Davy Jones, the first sight of the
hulking, Black Pearl beached on the shore of an island full of marauding cannibals will be as awe inspiring to the handful of
remaining susceptible 12 year-olds watching Dead Man’s Chest as those Harryhausen pictures were on me. This is a grand, expansive
entertainment that certainly has that possibility.
The film, a sequel to the spectacularly successful 2003 first edition, again stars Johnny Depp as the swashbuckling, ambisexual
Captain Jack Sparrow. Like all sequels, everything is twice as big – from the action sequences to the number of rotten teeth proudly
sported by the pirates. The story focuses on Captain Jack who owes his soul to the slimy, squid-faced Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), who
has arisen from the depths aboard the phantom Flying Dutchman along with his phantom crew demanding payment. Those that
dare to tangle with Jones and his squishy crew (including a half hammerhead shark, half man) are set upon by the dreaded Kraken,
the mythical giant squid that at one point literally snaps a sailing vessel in half quickly sinking her.
Captain Jack, naturally, does his best to make a deal while at the same time trying to find Davy’s Jones’ legendary locker, a small
chest that holds the secret to setting him free. He’s joined once again by Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and his fiancée, Elizabeth
Swann (Keira Knightley). After being arrested at the outset and sentenced to death for helping to free Captain Jack in the first
movie, these two have their own agenda – or subplot – to attend to. The various plot threads, naturally, allow for lots and lots of
action sequences that manage to toss in something from scores of other pirate/jungle pictures. At one point, Captain Jack is literally
seen roasting over a fire about to become dinner for the savage cannibals, Turner and a group of men suspended over a deadly
gorge have to swing back and forth (straight out of Disney’s In Search of the Castaways), while, of course, there’s plenty of pirate
sword and swashbuckler action.
Much of the film, like the first one, is bathed in candlelight or moonlit giving the picture the fantasy glow of Neverland – and Disney’s
theme park ride. This adds to the “staying up past your bedtime” thrill of the movie which helps. Depp’s performance, again an
inspired riff on rock-n-roll legend Keith Richards (who was rumored to be making a cameo that doesn’t happen – maybe next time)
is just as assured as the first turn though, oddly, there doesn’t seem to be as much of him this time out. The attraction between he
and Knightley’s character is upped and there’s a larger nod to Captain Jack’s sexual playfulness. At one point when Knightley (who
has been masquerading as a cabin boy in male clothing) shows up wearing pants Depp takes a good look and comments, “You
should always wear ladies dresses. I have one in my quarters.” But Sparrow’s slouching stance and slurred syllables are forced to
take second base to the plethora of action sequences. Like many of the other blockbusters of this ilk, Dead Man’s Chest is at least a
half hour too long (X Man: the Last Stand was a zippy 104 minutes by contrast). The best spectacles leave one wanting to take the
ride again – not just half the ride, as this one does.
This is the middle of a trilogy and like The Empire Strikes Back, the fates of the characters will have to wait to be resolved until the
third installment (already filmed) arrives next summer. Everyone will be back, from cast to director Gore Verbinski, for that
(including Geoffrey Rush who makes a welcome cameo here). One hopes, however, that Verbinski gives us a shorter cut, that
Richards makes that tantalizing cameo, and that we’re allowed to get a clearer fix on Captain Jack’s, a-hem, preferences. Now that’s
something worth anticipating.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amy Sedaris, sister of the gay humor essayist David Sedaris, is an extremely talented but hard to categorize actor who should make
you laugh non-stop. Her screechy voice and adeptness at outsized physical comedy are so unusual; her willingness to go the
distance to get the laugh so extreme, it would seem to make that a given and Sedaris has long been a beloved figure in fringe
comedy. Her talents have been used best in the short lived but often brilliant sketch series “Exit 57” that had a brief run on Comedy
Central and it had nowhere the success of Sedaris’ starring sitcom, Strangers with Candy that followed on the same network for
several seasons. Now a long delayed feature version of the latter is hitting theatres.
Sedaris plays the middle aged Jerri Blank, a former heroin addict and ex-con with the gigantic overbite, who has decided to return to
high school to try and reclaim her lost innocence and in the bargain, awaken her father from his deep coma. The comedy comes
from Blank trying anything to fit in with the other students and especially her vapid attempts to curry favor with the popular kids.
The movie, produced by David Letterman’s production company, features many of the show’s regulars (who were also fellow “Exit 57”
cast mates) – Paul Dinello (who also directed), Stephen Colbert (of the hit TV show “The Colbert Report”), and a smattering of big
names like Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. Dinello (who hails from Chicago) co-wrote the script along with Sedaris,
Colbert and Mitch Rouse (yet another “Exit 57” regular).
It’s a promising line-up but unfortunately, the movie feels interchangeable with all those terrible SNL skits that should have stayed
skits extended into feature length films (It’s Pat, Superstar, Ladies Man, etc.) and like them, feels like a too long sketch drawn out to
feature length. The movie, focusing on Sedaris joining a team of nerds to win the science fair, also constantly reminds one of the
offbeat humor and look of the much funnier Napoleon Dynamite.
There are intermittent laughs (the largest are supplied by Gregory Hollimon as the principal and by Colbert and Dinello as the fey art
teacher and the married science instructor involved in an on again/off again gay affair) but the picture never attempts to go any
deeper with the characters than the series it was based on. They remain as whisper thin as the plot.
Sedaris has real comedic flair (who else would think of parodying Agnes Moorehead in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte? so brilliantly as she
did in an unforgettable “Exit 57” sketch) but her Jerri Blank has remained a blank for me. I long for the big screen version of
another Sedaris character – the tough talkin’, redneck Bobbi Burns and her comely but dentally challenged trampy daughter, Amber
(Jodi Lennon). That’s a movie that could go the distance.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The movie seems nothing less than the delightful heir to the Ray Harryhausen
adventure fantasias, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans. I’ll probably never forget the first time
I saw some of the effects in those pictures – the army of sword wielding skeletons popping up out of the ground or the pleasures in
watching Pegasus, the winged horse take off with the princess – and I hope the many tentacled Davy Jones, the first sight of the
hulking, Black Pearl beached on the shore of an island full of marauding cannibals will be as awe inspiring to the handful of
remaining susceptible 12 year-olds watching Dead Man’s Chest as those Harryhausen pictures were on me. This is a grand, expansive
entertainment that certainly has that possibility.
The film, a sequel to the spectacularly successful 2003 first edition, again stars Johnny Depp as the swashbuckling, ambisexual
Captain Jack Sparrow. Like all sequels, everything is twice as big – from the action sequences to the number of rotten teeth proudly
sported by the pirates. The story focuses on Captain Jack who owes his soul to the slimy, squid-faced Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), who
has arisen from the depths aboard the phantom Flying Dutchman along with his phantom crew demanding payment. Those that
dare to tangle with Jones and his squishy crew (including a half hammerhead shark, half man) are set upon by the dreaded Kraken,
the mythical giant squid that at one point literally snaps a sailing vessel in half quickly sinking her.
Captain Jack, naturally, does his best to make a deal while at the same time trying to find Davy’s Jones’ legendary locker, a small
chest that holds the secret to setting him free. He’s joined once again by Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and his fiancée, Elizabeth
Swann (Keira Knightley). After being arrested at the outset and sentenced to death for helping to free Captain Jack in the first
movie, these two have their own agenda – or subplot – to attend to. The various plot threads, naturally, allow for lots and lots of
action sequences that manage to toss in something from scores of other pirate/jungle pictures. At one point, Captain Jack is literally
seen roasting over a fire about to become dinner for the savage cannibals, Turner and a group of men suspended over a deadly
gorge have to swing back and forth (straight out of Disney’s In Search of the Castaways), while, of course, there’s plenty of pirate
sword and swashbuckler action.
Much of the film, like the first one, is bathed in candlelight or moonlit giving the picture the fantasy glow of Neverland – and Disney’s
theme park ride. This adds to the “staying up past your bedtime” thrill of the movie which helps. Depp’s performance, again an
inspired riff on rock-n-roll legend Keith Richards (who was rumored to be making a cameo that doesn’t happen – maybe next time)
is just as assured as the first turn though, oddly, there doesn’t seem to be as much of him this time out. The attraction between he
and Knightley’s character is upped and there’s a larger nod to Captain Jack’s sexual playfulness. At one point when Knightley (who
has been masquerading as a cabin boy in male clothing) shows up wearing pants Depp takes a good look and comments, “You
should always wear ladies dresses. I have one in my quarters.” But Sparrow’s slouching stance and slurred syllables are forced to
take second base to the plethora of action sequences. Like many of the other blockbusters of this ilk, Dead Man’s Chest is at least a
half hour too long (X Man: the Last Stand was a zippy 104 minutes by contrast). The best spectacles leave one wanting to take the
ride again – not just half the ride, as this one does.
This is the middle of a trilogy and like The Empire Strikes Back, the fates of the characters will have to wait to be resolved until the
third installment (already filmed) arrives next summer. Everyone will be back, from cast to director Gore Verbinski, for that
(including Geoffrey Rush who makes a welcome cameo here). One hopes, however, that Verbinski gives us a shorter cut, that
Richards makes that tantalizing cameo, and that we’re allowed to get a clearer fix on Captain Jack’s, a-hem, preferences. Now that’s
something worth anticipating.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amy Sedaris, sister of the gay humor essayist David Sedaris, is an extremely talented but hard to categorize actor who should make
you laugh non-stop. Her screechy voice and adeptness at outsized physical comedy are so unusual; her willingness to go the
distance to get the laugh so extreme, it would seem to make that a given and Sedaris has long been a beloved figure in fringe
comedy. Her talents have been used best in the short lived but often brilliant sketch series “Exit 57” that had a brief run on Comedy
Central and it had nowhere the success of Sedaris’ starring sitcom, Strangers with Candy that followed on the same network for
several seasons. Now a long delayed feature version of the latter is hitting theatres.
Sedaris plays the middle aged Jerri Blank, a former heroin addict and ex-con with the gigantic overbite, who has decided to return to
high school to try and reclaim her lost innocence and in the bargain, awaken her father from his deep coma. The comedy comes
from Blank trying anything to fit in with the other students and especially her vapid attempts to curry favor with the popular kids.
The movie, produced by David Letterman’s production company, features many of the show’s regulars (who were also fellow “Exit 57”
cast mates) – Paul Dinello (who also directed), Stephen Colbert (of the hit TV show “The Colbert Report”), and a smattering of big
names like Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. Dinello (who hails from Chicago) co-wrote the script along with Sedaris,
Colbert and Mitch Rouse (yet another “Exit 57” regular).
It’s a promising line-up but unfortunately, the movie feels interchangeable with all those terrible SNL skits that should have stayed
skits extended into feature length films (It’s Pat, Superstar, Ladies Man, etc.) and like them, feels like a too long sketch drawn out to
feature length. The movie, focusing on Sedaris joining a team of nerds to win the science fair, also constantly reminds one of the
offbeat humor and look of the much funnier Napoleon Dynamite.
There are intermittent laughs (the largest are supplied by Gregory Hollimon as the principal and by Colbert and Dinello as the fey art
teacher and the married science instructor involved in an on again/off again gay affair) but the picture never attempts to go any
deeper with the characters than the series it was based on. They remain as whisper thin as the plot.
Sedaris has real comedic flair (who else would think of parodying Agnes Moorehead in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte? so brilliantly as she
did in an unforgettable “Exit 57” sketch) but her Jerri Blank has remained a blank for me. I long for the big screen version of
another Sedaris character – the tough talkin’, redneck Bobbi Burns and her comely but dentally challenged trampy daughter, Amber
(Jodi Lennon). That’s a movie that could go the distance.
Jack and Jerri:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest-Strangers with Candy
EXPANDED EDITION of 7-5-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest-Strangers with Candy
EXPANDED EDITION of 7-5-06 Knight at the Movies/Windy City Times Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
