May 20, 2011, - 7:18 pm
Wknd Box Office: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Forks Over Knives, Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Ironically, the vegan propaganda documentary was this weekend’s most interesting new flick.
* “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides“: Nothing really objectionable about this movie, but it was just boring, long, messy, and confusing. Also, I thought a few brief scenes might be kind of scary to young kids at whom Disney is marketing this, despite the PG-13 rating. And there are some veiled–and not-so-veiled–sexual references and allusions, which would be fine . . . in a pirate movie for adults. You have the usual action, stunts, special effects, etc. But I’m not sure why it was in 3-D. Certainly didn’t need to be. There was no great 3-D stuff here.
Johnny Depp is back as pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, while some of the dull people are finally gone, including Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, who aren’t in this. Instead, there’s Penelope Cruz, who isn’t much of an improvement. At the beginning, Sparrow is trying to evade English authorities, including the King and then finds himself on a ship with Cruz, a past girlfriend he deflowered at a nunnery. She is apparently the daughter of Blackbeard, the pirate captain of the ship to which Depp was kidnapped and put to work. Blackbeard is old, and like the King of England, some Spaniards and others, they are now seeking the Fountain of Youth. Even if they find it, they must mix the Fountain’s water with a mermaid’s tear. But, see, the mermaids are really vampires, and we see them mercilessly biting into and killing pirates trying to get such a tear.
As I said, this movie is fine, but not exciting. It’s very drawn out and isn’t a tight story or one that’s easily followed or enjoyed. It’s simply baby-sitting material that isn’t probably for kids younger than 11. After three installments of the Pirates series–which is, after all, based on an amusement park ride–this pirate story is getting old. This attempt to breathe new life into it is just okay, not spectacular. Not even close.
HALF A REAGAN
Watch the trailer . . .
* “Forks Over Knives“: I have mixed feelings about this very interesting documentary that is animal rights propaganda costumed as an educated health report. There are some good points in it, while many questions remain unanswered. The movie advocates a vegan diet, though I don’t remember if I even heard that word once in the movie because it has deservedly negative connotations and conjures up images of radicals in cork shoes and black gothwear. Instead, this movie uses the euphemism, “plant-based diet.” But make no mistake–the people in the movie are likeable. This isn’t Michael Moore in-your-face obnoxious fare. I enjoyed watching it even if I disagreed and questioned it.
For the record, I eat a mostly plant-based diet with very limited inclusion of red meat, chicken and eggs (only very occasionally), but I drink milk and eat yogurt, which, according to this movie, cause all kinds of cancer and degenerative disease because of high levels of casein. And there are animal-based proteins, such as lutein (found in egg yolks) , and bacteria, such as lactobacillus, from yogurt, that are more difficult to garner from vegetables, fruits, and grains. The movie didn’t really address this, or the matter of fish, which I also eat (a lot of salmon), and which the participants in a diet featured in this movie, did not.
The movie follows people in poor health who follow a vegan diet as prescribed by two 70-something doctors who are in terrific health. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., M.D. and T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. have done a series of studies, including Campbell’s extensive “China Project,” using data from the Chinese population to account for low levels of cancers in the Chinese population versus much higher levels of cancers in the American people. They concluded that the primary cause is animal fats and proteins.
They have a point, and that’s why I eat less animal protein. But I’m not convinced it’s necessary to cut it out entirely, something even the Chinese didn’t do. I like a good steak once a year, and I love to eat salmon, tuna, and a few other varieties of fish. I probably eat two burgers a year, but it would be tough for me to cut out cereal with milk or an occasional kosher shawarmeh sandwich (which I have maybe twice a year). Chicken soup with matzoh ball–does that really make a person more cancer prone? I thought it was Jewish penicillin, even though I only have it a few times a year. The movie doesn’t address people like me who frequently eat fish and enjoy a very low-fat chicken broth once in a while. I also wondered what role exercise–both aerobic and weight-bearing played–versus no animal protein in reducing disease. The movie doesn’t address that either, though advocating exercise.
The movie makes some interesting points that have been borne out, such as that doctors who make revolutionary claims through their studies and lab work are often ostracized and pilloried by the established medical community. That has frequently happened in cancer research, etc.
But other claims in the movie were questionable and even outright false. We’re told that people in the rest of the world are starving because grain goes to cows so we in the West can eat them. But the starving kid picture they showed doesn’t obscure the reality that the reason many children are starving around the world is that their governments refuse to distribute the grain we send them. Or they simply don’t have capitalist economies, so grain isn’t plentiful because profit is limited and/or seized by government intervention. Companies that grow grain for cattle feed might simply stop growing it if we didn’t eat beef.
A comparison of breast cancer rates in Kenya versus those in the U.S. isn’t a fair comparison. The U.S. has Hispanics and Jews–both of which have a high incidence of the inherited breast-cancer causing gene, BRCA2. Kenya has neither of these nationalities in any significant number. The movie does say–and other scientists have found this–that your lifestyle is a more dominant predictor than genes, regarding how your health will turn out. I believe that. With my family history, I must.
I also didn’t believe the wondrous claims the movie puts forth that, for example, going on a vegan diet will reverse breast cancer, as the movie contends that it did with a marathoner woman who is 58 years old. I found that an irresponsible presentation that will unnecessarily get up the hopes of some dying people stricken with the disease.
Anytime you see a movie that includes the appearance of the radical PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)–which is basically the Medical Doctors’ arm of PETA–you have to doubt its veracity. But the point about which a PCRM official appears is definitely an important one: sunshine on the identities of those at the USDA who formulate the food pyramid and which big agricultural and food companies are paying them.
Yes, it’s probably not a good idea to eat high-calorie, cheese-laden pizza and steaks covered in sauce every meal. But if you vary your diet and eat everything in moderation and get off your butt and get some fresh air on a regular basis, you’ll probably be okay. That’s what my parents taught me, and it–thank G-d–has worked so far. I’ll probably eat even less animal protein after seeing some of the studies in this movie. But I’m not gonna let propaganda push me to become a vegan. Animals were made for human consumption. And, for the foreseeable future, that ain’t gonna change. Nor should it.
Nonetheless, this makes an interesting, engaging presentation, and even though there are holes in it, I recommend seeing it. But only if you are a critical thinker like I am. It’s food for thought, and I recommend seeing it, though with a critical eye, and that’s why I must still give it . . .
TWO TOFURKEYS
Watch the trailer . . .
* “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold“: More like the greatest bore and exercise in self-indulgence ever sold by vastly over-rated, far-left, pan-Muslim, pro-Palestinian snake oil salesman Morgan Spurlock. I can sum up this movie in one run-on sentence: Me, Me, Me, Me, Morgan Spurlock, Me, Watch Me Learn Marketing 101, Me, Me, Me, Hey Did You Know Companies Pay Money to Have Products in Movies, Wow, Who Knew, Plastic Surgery Victim Lynda Resnick Who Owns POM Wonderful, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Boring, Yawnworthy, Me, Me, Me.
Yup, Morgan Spurlock, who has zero ideas, is boring and wants to find ways to get paid millions to make you watch his boring discovery of America, sliced bread, ‘lectricity, and shoes. His last bomb, the boring, Islamo-pandering “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” (read my review), should have been the end of his career. (And now we know the answer to that, which we didn’t get from this creep, Spurlock.) It was the same crap–watch me, me, me, me. Now we have this to add to the Morgan trash can.
Hey, did you know that companies pay millions of dollars to get their products inserted into movies and TV shows? Wow, I never knew, just like I didn’t know there were toilets, cars, and computers. Hey, thanks for the tip, Morgan.
You’ll have to ask billionairess plastic surgery victim Lynda Resnick (owner of Fiji Water and POM Wonderful) why she gave Spurlock at least a million bucks to have her product helm his lefty, waste-of-time movie. She mentions that she’s a “Jewish mother,” but apparently had no problem giving oodles of money to pan-Muslim, anti-Israel Spurlock, who won an award from the unindicted HAMAS terrorism co-conspirator, CAIR Action Network for his propaganda on behalf of Muslims and against Jews and Israel. Do Fiji Water and POM Wonderful sponsor HAMAS? In a way, both of these products now do. Great PR move, Lynda. I suppose she and her companies also endorse the views of anti-Semitic Jew Noam Chomsky and anti-Semitic Ralph Nader, both of whom are prominently embraced by this movie. Resnick declined my request for an interview. Shocker. The chick is a wimp . . . and a sell-out.
I, for one, will never buy Fiji of POM drinks again. I don’t need to fund more Lynda face procedures and Morgan dreck. How ’bout you? Plus I struggled to stay awake during Morgan’s on-air fantasy.
Spurlock, who must have lived on another planet, never heard of Mane and Tail shampoo and was surprised a shampoo markets itself to wash both human and horse hair. Um, Morgan, the ’80s called. They want their fad back. Yup, this was big then, but Spurlock is too ignorant to know . . . or try Google.
Oh, and guess what? Mr. “Supersize Me” was shocked–shocked!–that McDonald’s, Burger King, Coke, and Pepsi didn’t wanna have product placement in this. Gee, I wonder why?
Don’t waste your time on this, unless you ran out of sleeping pills and a sense of the obvious. Like I said, wow, companies pay to have product placement in films? Who knew? Um, everybody.
Morgan Spurlock doesn’t sell anything but con jobs. And he’s no salesman. Just a pimp. Skip this trick.
FOUR MARXES PLUS
Watch the trailer . . .
**** Listen to my movie reviews every Friday Morning on the Mike Church Show on SiriusXM Patriot Channel, Replayed on SiriusXM Patriot Plus ****
Tags: Blackbeard, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. M.D., Captain Jack Sparrow, Documentary, Forks Over Knives, Fountain of Youth, Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Johnny Depp, Linda Resnick, Lynda Resnick, Morgan Spurlock, movie, movie review, Movie Reviews, Noam Chomsky, PCRM, Penelope Cruz, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, plant-based diet, POM Wonderful, Ralph Nader, T. Colin Campbell Ph.D., The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, vegan
Debbie… you posted a review of the last movie a few weeks back.
Is it me or have they rescheduled that movie run?
NF: It was re-scheduled in Detroit. DS
NormanF on May 20, 2011 at 7:38 pm