Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

The focus here was on action and comedy, not trying to be all sexy with Brad and Angelina. It was violent enough to keep me entertained, and quite funny. It's no masterpiece, but it's good fun.

Rating: C+

Beowulf (2007)

Curiosity got the better of me on this one, that, and Angelina Jolie, who looks hot animated or otherwise. Once you get past the fact that you're watching a cartoon for adults, it's not so bad. Pretty violent in fact. More enjoyable though, is the making of featurette on the DVD. Casting Crispin Glover in the role of Grendel was genius.

Rating: C-

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

How could what I saw as being a very average, unoriginal, lengthy pirate movie have gotten people so excited... especially the ones who gave this an A+????? Fools!

I've always been a huge fan of Johnny Depp, and I thought he played his role well, but the rest of the movie was a let down for me. I kept getting a "been there, done that" feeling throughout. It seemed like one movie device after another was being thrown at me, including the ol' "I'll marry you to save so and so's life". Blah.

After the first sword fight, I was ready for something new. Instead, it was more and more sword fights, more pirate stereotypes, more regurgitation of every pirate movie ever done, etc. I didn't really have anyone to root for since I didn't care about most of the characters. They were all so poorly developed. They simply

interacted in front of me until the end. The ending had a high cheese factor too. Could have been much better in the hands of a competent director.

Rating: D+