Reviews

I loved the first POTC and am a big fan of Johnny Depp's movies, and indeed the man himself is pretty much flawless again in this sequel. My gripe really centres around the unnecessarily complicated plot and the overall length of the film. Unlike the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings trilogy there is nothing in the screenplay to really justify the bum-numbing 150 minutes spent watching this film, particularly as the plot takes so long to get going. The major set pieces involving the island cannibals and the key to Davy Jones' locker are good but seriously in need of editing, and although the CGI effects are impressive, there really is only so many times you can marvel at the 'beastie' before its time to stifle the yawns. Anyone who saw King Kong and experienced midway restlessness will probably recognise similar symptoms here too. That said, the performances by the lead actors are excellent and although the script doesn't seem to provide the same number of laughs found in the first film, this is generally not a poor sequel. Expectation gained from the first film is likely to be an issue when assessing the merits of the sequel and most fans of JD will not be too disappointed, I just hope this 'trilogy' does a 'Back to the Future' and ends with a pacey flourish, rather than a further need for pressure-relieving cushions.

Just so we're clear okay? I enjoyed Kids, thought Bully was excellent, so what makes Ken Park such a let down? Well for starters, plot has never been Mr Clark's forte, and when you watch one of his movies you know that there's going to be a substantial amount of nudity; but while I can see one of the aims of the movie - i.e. demonstrating that the adults are equally (if not more) f***ed up than the kids - you do have to question the point of such a graphic masturbation scene. Both this and the films, erm..climax really don't give Mr Clark any chance of losing the 'teen pornographer' tag, because this is exactly what a significant part of the movie is.

Most of the rest of the film is either very dull, or actually quite unpleasant. You know that the kids are ad-libbing throughout (which I suppose is how Kids and Bully worked); is Clark then simply looking for kids prepared to strip and have sex on camera, rather than trying to find another Chloe Sevigny? The adults on the other hand are given such a poor script to work with, yet we are meant to see them as completely messed up individuals.

Okay, does it depict 'real life'? - well sure, teenagers take drugs, they masturbate, they have sex, they get angry at parents, they skate. There is nothing in Ken Park that is unrealistic as such; but unlike other films that depict teenagers (American Beauty and Y Tu Mama Tambien are two which spring to mind) you finish watching this film and then really want to scrub out the memory in a shower afterwards.

I have lost count of the nightmares that I have had over the years that relate to Halloween and Michael Myers, the theme tune alone is usually enough to scare me silly. That was until I watched this pile of manure!

The opening 15 minutes was passable, though I pitied Jamie Lee having to put her name to the overall film. What followed was an exercise in how to completely bury a horror series. Granted the only films that have any credibility were Halloween, H4 and H20, but even in the darkest (or should that be lightest) moments of the fifth and sixth episodes at least Michael himself was scary. Not any longer.

There wasn't a believable or likeable character in the film, Laurie apart, and how the hell Busta Rhymes was cast I will never know.

It is almost wasting breath to plead that there will be no more Halloween films, because there will be. The only positive thing that could be said is that at least they can't be as bad as this one.