By ,
Published January 13, 2015
"Pirates of the Caribbean" a great ride and "City of God" one of the year's best in today's Foxlight.
It sounded like a horrible idea. A pirate movie based on a Disney ride. But "Pirates of the Caribbean" (search) was a great summer flick and should do very well now on DVD. Johnny Depp actually looks like he's having fun. And Geoffrey Rush doesn't embarrass himself as much in this as he has in everything else he's done since Oscar took a "Shine" to him.
Pirate movies are usually dreadful box-office propositions, but uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer seems to always know better and this is certainly no exception. This sort of makes up for "The Country Bears." Actually, it doesn't.
At the absolute opposite end of the movie world is a film that will proudly sit on my Top Ten list this year. It's called "City of God," (search) and it takes you into a completely original and horrific world of crime in a Rio De Janerio slum. Did I mention most of the criminals are kids? Disney is not going to make a ride out of this one. But the "loosely based on a true story" about a young photographer trying to escape all this is utterly captivating.
Finally, it came out weeks ago but I'm still slogging through all the extras on "JFK." It's great, but a real commitment. Don't rent it unless you're willing to pay for like a month of overdue days.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/new-on-dvd-pirates-of-the-caribbean-and-city-of-god