One of my absolute favorite romantic comedies of all time. I had high expectations for this movie and it didn't disappoint. I love Will Smith, he is a great actor and so damn funny when he wants to be. He plays “Hitch” the super cool, smooth and suave date doctor, who helps clueless men how to ask women out and maintain the relationship. Eva Mendes plays the love interest whom Hitch meets and obviously like a lot because he can't seem to be his cool self whenever he is around her. Throw in some corniness, chaos and confusion and you've got the funniest, cutest, feel-good movie in a long time.

The Pacifier

I like watching tough, buff guys having to deal with children and eventually adoring them. This movie starring Vin Diesel was very predictable and clichéd, but that's probably the reason why it's so good to watch. It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Kindergarten Cop” except for the fact that Vin Diesel is kind of hot. I really enjoyed this film about a navy seal, hired to watch the “Plummer” kids and protect them from the bad guys, who want to get their hands on their late father's computer program. It was funny and cute and of course no movie like this is complete without a happy ending where everyone goes away learning more about themselves, it is Disney after all.

The Perfect Catch

Such as cute and funny movie. I quite enjoyed this, even though the story was extremely simple. A Red Sox mad fan and a workaholic start dating each other and the plot revolves around the question “What is most important to you?” Jimmy Fallon was great, so funny and adorable and Drew Barrymore was her old fantastic self. I couldn't help smiling through the whole movie because it was silly, corny and sweet all at the same time. There were some absolutely hilarious moments that made me rewind to watch over and over again. This movie is extremely light-hearted and perfect for a “don't have to think too much” night-in.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I know there were mixed reviews about this remake, but I really enjoyed it. Once again Johnny Depp is brilliant as the famous Willy Wonka in this Tim Burton version of the classic story. This Willy Wonka was hilarious, strange, quirky and a little child-like and lost. Johnny Depp is just incredible, I don't know how he does it, he is one of those “silently brilliant people.” In real life he is awfully serious and shy, but he just comes alive on screen! The little boy playing Charlie, Freddy Highmore is one helluva an actor, he is going to go far, I see an Oscar nomination for him one day.

The music and the settings were beautiful and eerie and sometimes quite comical, it is a typical Tim Burton style but that is one of the reasons why I love his work so much.

The film follows a barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), unfairly sentenced to hard labour in Australia after the corrupt and perverted Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) seizes his young wife. Now Barker has returned to London, now calling himself Sweeney Todd, and is bent on revenge. With the aid of Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) who owns a pie shop under Todd's flat (and claims to sell “the worst pies in London”), Todd sets himself up at his trade once more and prepares to exact his revenge.

Fusing dark humour, sinister performances and truly stunning art direction, “Sweeney Todd” is a cinematic tour de force, a gruesome delight from start to finish. Johnny Depp excels as the titular throat-slitting barber, playing a true “villain” for the first time and creating a sympathetic yet frightening character: driven, obsessive and brooding. His performance is all the more remarkable for his singing which might not be to the standard of the average West End show but is passionate and attractive enough to rise above the tempestuous score. The decision to cast good actors who could sing passably, rather than good singers who can act passably, is one of the film's strongest points, Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall may not be the new faces of pop music but they are certainly familiar and respected faces on film! A pleasant surprise comes from Sacha Baron Cohen, better known to television fans as Ali G or Borat, as a charlatan barber and rival of Todd's, his singing voice is incredible along with his frankly hilarious accents, an added and unexpected treat. Aside from riveting performances from Depp, Bonham Carter and Rickman, the film also benefits from the incredible set designs, costumes and makeup that create the sinister world of Todd's London, painted across the silver screen in a sinister palette of grey, black and blood red. Using CGI to create some of the skyscapes and backgrounds, with coldly realistic foreground sets, the film is visually set for contrasts, a theme picked up in the costumes (Mrs Lovett's and Todd's wild hair, almost monochrome outfits and gothic pallor is contrasted with the more “natural” look of the young sailor Anthony Hope and Todd's estranged daughter Johanna) as well as the music and the plot of the film.

Being a musical, the storyline and the score are practically inseparable; discordant music often heralds a character's distress, but strangely not the murders themselves, which are disturbingly juxtaposed with surprisingly elegant and beautiful music. As for the murders, well let's say this is not a film for the squeamish. Gory title credits fade away into a misleading lull lasting almost half of the film, disturbed only by the tragic back-story of the title character, before finally exposing us to steadily increasing levels of blood and gore, culminating in a fittingly revolting and deeply tragic ending.

Admittedly part of the appeal of the film comes from the “isn't that cool” factor of seeing great actors like Depp and Rickman singing a duet together, and from finally seeing Depp play a villainous character, but thankfully its power extends far beyond that. With it's gothic setting and design, gruesome effects, haunting music and captivating performances, this is a piece not to be missed Highly recommended to anyone who can stomach both musicals and visceral horror!

It is one of those few stories where the film is better than the book. I read the book several times when I was young. This film has an all-star cast of characters. Director Tim Burton did an excellent job in the making of this film.

If you have seen and liked this film then it is clear to you why I do. I have to give Tim Burton props on this film, I do not usually like his films. His direction of Sleepy Hollow was Masterful admittedly, but I am not too big on his previous work.

Johnny Depp made a name for himself in Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton made a name for himself with Nightmare Before Christmas. They made a great team making Sleepy Hollow. I hope to see them work together again in the future.

Go watch it if you haven't yet, it is a thrill a minute.

One of the things in the movie which was especially awkward was when the pirates are fighting the British (or whatever) the pirates have 10 ships and the British have around 200 ships. Then after the pirates destroy one ship the 200 British ships run away! The entire 30 minute battle sequence only shows 3 ships fight and not the other 210 ships.

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Did we really have to wait a year to find out if the next "Pirates" film would be Depp-less? Could the many-tentacled villain, Davy Jones, played by Bill Nighy, be triumphant, kick Depp out and take over the franchise? (That's actually a pretty cool idea but... nah).

The low-budget, Saturday-matinee serials that inspired those last scenes in "Dead Man's Chest" were often more suspenseful and worrying because the B-movie actors who appeared in them were more expendable than Depp. They weren't top box-office draws appearing in blockbusters expected to hit the $1 billion mark.

For that reason, there was never much question that Depp would rise again, if somewhat worse for wear, in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the third installment in the franchise that began four years ago with Disney's surprise smash, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

No "spoiler alert" is needed before acknowledging that Sparrow survives the battle with the squid-style kraken. Or, that he goes on to star in the longest (168 minutes), most convoluted, most experimental and probably the most expensive entry in the series.

Whether it's the best or worst will be a matter of heated debate over the next few weeks, though even the most enthusiastic Depp fans may be put off by the length and the emphasis on action and special effects over story. It begins to feel like punishment, especially in the final reels, when the narrative appears to wrap up half a dozen times.

While Sparrow is definitely back, the movie begins not with him, but with a brutal mass hanging. This is accompanied by the announcement that habeas corpus has been suspended and apparently no one has any rights at all. Could this be producer Jerry Bruckheimer's attempt to introduce contemporary politics to the franchise? If so, he doesn't follow through, though there's a suggestion that the chief heavy has a New World Order in mind.

Sparrow's old enemy, Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Co., is up to his usual tricks, abusing his authority by indiscriminately stringing people up. He also means to do away with all pirates, including Sparrow. As in the second film, however, allegiances can shift and motivations may be fuzzy.

"Pretend it's all a bad dream," advises Sparrow. "That's how I survive." Maybe that's the best way to get through "At World's End."

Opposed to Beckett's plans are Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), his girlfriend Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and the vampirish Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Stellan Skarsgrd turns up again as Turner's father, and Naomie Harris makes the most of a key role as the ambiguous Tia Dalma.

The freshest touch here is the introduction of Keith Richards (the acknowledged inspiration for Depp's performance) as Sparrow's father, Capt. Teague. He drops by for a few minutes to give Sparrow advice about survival, and he has a memorably eloquent response to his son's question, "How's Mum?" If you take a bathroom break, you may miss his big scene entirely, but he turns up later for a curtain call.

Also new to the franchise is Chow Yun-Fat, playing a Singapore pirate, Sao Feng, who paws at Swann but otherwise has shockingly little to do. The original director, Gore Verbinski, teams again with screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rosio but fails to develop the characters or encourage the relationships to grow and count. At worst, they risk turning sentimental.

Fortunately, Verbinski has not lost his gift for gallows humor. The makeup effects are as ghoulish as ever, and an episode about frostbitten toes is delightfully squirm-worthy. Computer-generated special effects make possible several cartoonish episodes, including one with a monkey blown out of a cannon and another with a tiny pirate who finds himself launched with his own gun.

Of the actors from the first two films, Bloom has improved most by avoiding self-consciousness and relaxing into his role. Richards, leathery and self-mocking at 63, is such a natural that you can't help wishing he had more to do.

This time around, Verbinski seems more interested in creating stunning visuals and playing games. A nighttime sequence in which the stars merge with the sea, while a ship stirs up the mirror-like water, is especially beautiful. Just as gorgeous is Verbinski's dramatic use of the "green ray" (celebrated in such movies as "Summer" and "A Flash of Green") that takes place under certain conditions at sunset.

Depp co-stars with several versions of himself in a couple of hallucinatory episodes, much like John Malkovich in "Being John Malkovich," but these are show-off moments. Just because Verbinski can do it doesn't mean he's found a good reason for doing it. And, there's already too much of Depp camping it up as Sparrow. This may be the third time, but the charm's worn off. No. 4 would really be pushing it.

Creating a successful sequel can be like trying to make lightning strike more than once in the same spot. It can be done, but it's especially hard to pull off a "threequel." Neither the new "Spider-Man" nor the new "Shrek" quite managed to do it, and the latest "Pirates" is even less successful.

In the summer of 2006, "Dead Man's Chest" set a new opening-weekend box-office record that has since been eclipsed by "Spider-Man 3." No doubt "At World's End" will give the latter a run for its money in the opening-weekend category as well.

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean audiences or critics were satisfied with what finally made it to the screen. "Pirates" No. 2 was a good sales job, and "Pirates" No. 3 is expected to duplicate it. No. 1 may trail both films in total box-office receipts, but it's the one most people will remember.

The plot follows on from “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest”, as Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) find themselves allied with their old enemy Captain Barbossa in a quest free Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from his terrible fate in Davy Jones' locker. Once freed, the pirates must unite against the might of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his ship, The Flying Dutchman - who has found himself stuck with the East India Trading Company and its treacherous leader Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander).

The biggest problem with “At World's End” is that the director is trying to fit too much in. The film is over-complicated with too many sub-plots and characters, such as Chow Yun-Fat and his pirates, who don't really add anything to the film. The sub-plots all add in an extra, unnecessary, part of the story.

Despite the fact that the plot was quite confusing, and the fact that half the characters could be scraped with the movie still being pretty ample, the special effects and fighting scenes were, like the first two Pirates of the Caribbean film, outstanding. The movie kicks off with an awesome starting battle in Singapore, between two "gangs" of pirates and soldiers from the East India Trading Company. Similarly, near the end of the film, the ship battle is highly entertaining.

Overall, as you can find in many trilogies, the last film was worse than the first two, yet still very good. The bad points are the over-complicated plot and sub-plots, but this is easily countered with over ten great cast members, brilliant special effects, outstanding fighting scenes and snippets of comedy fitted in cleverly throughout the film.

• Run time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
• Buena Vista Pictures: Disney folks
• Rated: PG-13

Go see “Pirates 3”

For the action. It's a great action film. It's almost impossible to review this movie without spoiling it. Frankly there is a big twist at the end and for me it kinda ruined the whole film. They were trying not to have a trite, Hollywood ending, or perhaps they didn't have a clue how to end it, but however they got there they should have thought of something else. It's not horrible but it fails to give me a reason to cheer.

They really betray the whole point of the trilogy. Ok I'll stop talking about it because its ticking me off.

What about the “PG-13” Rating?

There really is a lot of violence in this film. Then again it's about pirates. They capture our imagination and there is a limit to how much we can clean them up before they loose their charm.

What if I hate Jonny Depp?

Face it some of the actors we can't stand are really good at what they do. Johnny Depp is great in this movie as he is in most of his movies. I can't stand him in real life, but he's good.

Larger Story

There could have been a number of things that pointed to the larger story but they wrecked it at the end. Seriously. They could have gone somewhere with a man who would keep his heart in a box because a women hurt him. But they chose instead to have the film's deity only really show concern for those already dead. They could have gone there with the courageous and foolhardy way that people grasp for life against all odds. But instead they chose to juggle themes of loving your father verses loving your wife and where honor fits in. We so often confuse making vows with honor. Like the apostle Paul says, “my conscience is clear but that doesn't make me right.”

There's a couple of life's lessons portrayed. One might be that you have to be careful of the company you keep. If you are around people who back stab you will at least keep secrets that can cost you someone you love.