Rob Marshall
**Spoiler alert** There are basically two reasons we flock to theatres by the thousands each time a new Pirates of the Caribbean is released: Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow and the entertaining action sequences (choreographed to that now unmistakable theme music). The first Pirates film set up these expectations and spawned a successful franchise; however, if the fourth film — a reboot — was the first, I don’t think they would have made another. The fact that we can expect at least two more pictures from this cash cow ($90 million at the opening weekend box office for film #4)...
After the complex story lines in the previous chapter, the goal for the fourth instalment was to keep it simple. In that it is successful — maybe too successful. The two-plus hours of the film weighs heavily on its viewing experience because so little happens for so much of the movie. In a pirate flick, the adventure of traveling from A to B should be better than a trip to White Castle....
With Rob Marshall’s latest musical effort Nine it is no surprise that the only thing he able to perfect was his marketing campaign and diversity in casting choices. If any of you have the expectation or hope that Marshall’s interpretation of a Fellini classic is even close to his Academy Award winning 2002 jazz musical Chicago, please make sure your expectations are lowered immediately. The simplistic story begins with Guido Contini, the always hypnotizing Daniel Day-Lewis, a cinematic God and notorious socialite. Contini is on the verge of releasing details on his newest feature Italia without a script and without...
