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DVD reviewsOn December 01, 2007 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,' 'Superbad,' and more BY ROB LOWMAN > LA.COM
'PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END' More than 30 minutes into the 169-minute "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," there is a Federico Fellini-meets-Peter Sellers moment. In it, the dead Capt. Jack Sparrow — having been swallowed up by a sea monster at the end of "Pirates II" — is having conversations with his multiple selves while onboard a sailing ship on some sort of surreal desert landscape. He then goes on to have dealings with some stone crabs, and finds significance in a peanut. As the slightly mad and madcap Sparrow, Johnny Depp has been the most consistently enjoyable part of this increasing complicated lunacy. But the scene is apropos of the filmmakers — director Gore Verbinski, screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, and uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer — and their idea of theme-park-ride storytelling — just pile on the action and absurdity and don't worry about what was around the last bend. So while the multiple Sparrows are somewhat amusing, the scene plays like a talking skull on the the original Disney ride. You just sort of float by, think that's cool, and wait for the next bit of weirdness. It starts with a scene of mass hangings — this being PG-13, they keep them off camera. Then a young boy who's about to be executed begins singing. This prompts all the condemned to join in. For a moment, I thought I popped a copy of "Les Miserables" into my DVD player. The kid is then hanged — off camera, off course — but it still makes for an odd tone to kick off the film. It ends after all the credits with a little coda of what happens to two of the characters. In between, there's a story of East India Trading Co. under Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) trying to take over the seas, imposing martial law, etc., and using Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his ghostly ship to enforce their rule. (Beckett literally has Jones' heart.) Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and the crew of Sparrow's Black Pearl have hooked up with the sorceress Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), who has brought Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) back from the dead. Their plan is to rescue Sparrow from Davy Jones' locker. (Why Tia couldn't bring him back too probably floated by me.) They all then head off to Singapore to steal a navigational chart from the Chinese pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) in order to get to the netherworld. By this time, we haven't even hit the multiple Sparrows. A couple of hours later, everything gets resolved, and, oh yeah, Keith Richards shows up as Jack's dad in another curious scene. The extras on the two-disc set offer some interesting glimpses into this madness, including bloopers, a look at how the big special-effects moment — the maelstrom — was created and shot, and "Keith & the Captain," about the relationship between Richards and Depp. In a theater, I'd likely have felt impatient watching "At World's End," but over two nights it proved relatively enjoyable if still dizzying. There still weren't enough Sparrows, though. When a script-writing team names their main characters Seth and Evan and their names are Seth and Evan, you know you're not about to see something with much sophistication. And in the case of "Superbad," you're right. "Knocked Up" star Seth Rogen wrote the script with writing partner Evan Goldberg while the two were still in their teens. Obviously they polished the script a bit since or writer-director Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up," "40-Year-Old Virgin") wouldn't have put his name as producer on it. The story involves a couple of nerds, Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) - who along with their friend Fogell, aka McLovin' (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) - try winning their way into the in crowd by buying liquor. Complications (surprise!) ensue. Director Greg Mottola - who a while back did a nice little film, "The Daytrippers" - keeps events moving along. While some jokes wear thin, "Superbad" scores in the tradition of raunch comedies like "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Porky's." TELEVISION The weird thing about season six of "24" was that it seemed to end midway through the year, as if the writers had realized they had taken the wrong path, tidied things up and headed off into a new dilemma. Still the series is addictive, and a lot of that has to do with Kiefer Sutherland's portrayal of Jack Bauer. The guy may seem indestructible, but he is human, too, which makes you forgive his (many) human-rights violations. And his doggedness makes you wish there really was a Jack Bauer in an American counterterrorism unit. Some thought season six was disappointing after a thrilling season five, but it had its moments. And as always, "24" brings in some fine actors, particularly Alexander Siddig as a former Arab terrorist trying to broker peace and James Cromwell as Jack's nefarious father. The seven-disc set includes a number of special features, among them an exclusive season seven preview (which may not happen for a while with the writers' strike), deleted scenes, cast/crew episode commentaries and other featurettes. MORE NEW RELEASES 'Tis the season. There's a lot coming out now (peruse the list and feel free to e-mail me) but here's some of what's on my radar: "Ingmar Bergman - Four Masterworks" from Criterion: This includes four of the Swedish director's greatest films — "The Seventh Seal," "Smiles of a Summer Night," "The Virgin Spring" and "Wild Strawberries." "The Essential John Ford Collection" from Fox: It may be an overstatement but there are some marvelous films from the legendary American director — "The Frontier Marshall," "My Darling Clementine," "Drums Along the Mohawk," "How Green Was My Valley," "The Grapes of Wrath" and an excellent documentary, "Becoming John Ford." For the completist there's "Ford at Fox," which is a 21-disc set that has 24 of his films, including some of his great silent pictures, and the documentary. "Lubitsch in Berlin" from Kino: Five silent films from the German director who made his mark in the U.S. with "To Be or Not to Be" and "Ninotchka." Also keep in mind: Pascale Ferran's "Lady Chatterley," a fresh take on D.H. Lawrence's sensual novel; "New York, New York" was not Martin Scorsese's best film but it offers some delights (in a 30th anniversary edition). From television there's "Battlestar Galactica - Razor," the one-night offshot of the sci-fi series; HBO's gritty "The Wire - The Complete Fourth Season" and "Saturday Night Live - The Complete Second Season," which is when Bill Murray came aboard. -------------------------IN STORES TUESDAY TELEVISION OLDER FILMS MUSIC  
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