Depp's Sunshine Flick
"Top-tier stars...stay on top by being true to their personas. We pay $10 to see Will Smith or Julia Roberts precisely because they don't surprise us. It's not that they're playing themselves. It's just that the force of their personalities swamps everything else. They're more than actors -- they're brands. And yet Johnny Depp, 43, is almost pathologically unpredictable. He can be bizarre, hilarious, unsettling -- even annoying. But he is never the same. He's the anti-Tom Cruise. 'Nothing against Tom, but Johnny may be a bigger star now,' says director John Waters, who cast Depp in 1990's Cry-Baby. ' Nobody is sick of Johnny Depp .'" -- from Sean Smith's Newsweek profile of the Pirates of the Caribbean star. The piece includes a riff on the film itself. To me, Smith's standout remark sounds thin: Pirates 2, he says, "promises to be a welcome blast of sunshine in a season when Cruise has crashed and burned, and The Da Vinci Code has proved to be a joyless blockbuster." A goddam sunshine movie that's good because it's unlikely to resemble and/or repeat the box-office experience of M:I:3 or The DaVinci Code?
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 18, 2006 at 4:28 PM
comment #1
Edward says ...
I'm not all that interested in POTC2 either but your hatred for the film is reaching the level of childish obsession. You do know there are no hobbits in it?
Posted by Edward at June 18, 2006 4:48 PM
comment #2
Anonymous says ...
I'm with the above poster. Wells, my movie tastes resemble yours with unsettling frequency (Munich sucked, Brokeback was great, Kubrick's the god of film, hell, Gladiator got better with a second viewing...), so my enthusiasm for a movie usually increases if you recommend it... but I gotta say, after Miami Vice, POTC2 is my most-anticipated movie of the summer at this point. I thought the first one was ridiculously fun and Depp was fucking great...I can't wait to see him do his lecherous-yet-effeminate pirate act again.
Posted by Anonymous at June 18, 2006 5:03 PM
comment #3
Gabriel says ...
' Nobody is sick of Johnny Depp .'
Not so fast. I'm extremely sick of Johnny Depp. I love "Edward Scissorhands" and "Fear and Loathing" as much as the next guy, but between Keith Sparrow and Mikey Wonka, I've had enough of Depp's misguided, phony acting choices. He also pretty much ruined "Dead Man" for me (I just watched it for the first time a month ago), he gave the most stupidly-overpraised performance in recent memory in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" (a fashionably-conceived death does not a good character make), and I didn't buy him for one second as Ed Wood.
Posted by Gabriel at June 18, 2006 5:08 PM
comment #4
Eric says ...
Count me as one of those who's not particularly interested in seeing POC2, even if offered a free ticket. Looks like brain-dead, amped-up entertainment justified as a "popcorn movie."
One wonders what he'll bring to the party to keep the film from being too vapid, but this is one of those cases where I expect diminishing returns.
Posted by Eric at June 18, 2006 5:40 PM
comment #5
delbomber says ...
Jeff's embrace of Supe and equally passionate grudge against POTC is touching in that he wants nothing more than for audiences to prove they have collective good taste...FOR ONCE. Both are blockbusters and both are being marketed ad nauseum, thus this isn't a another bout of Hollywood Elsewhere snobbery...it's clear to me he's holding out hope that audiences will rally behind a well made, thoughtful, unconventional fantasy instead of, as Eric put it so well, "brain-dead, amped-up entertainment justified as a 'popcorn movie'."
Posted by delbomber at June 18, 2006 6:32 PM
comment #6
lac says ...
Depp had a movie out earlier this year. Did anyone go and see it? A bigger star than Tom. I don't think so.
Posted by lac at June 18, 2006 7:14 PM
comment #7
Annie says ...
lac, what movie?
Posted by Annie at June 18, 2006 8:35 PM
comment #8
Nick says ...
Pirates 2 looks like the best summer movie we've had in a long time, something actually fun. I agree about Depp taking the throne from Cruise and here's why: He doesn't need to be loved by the Good Morning America crowd, those are the people that revolt if you do something a little strange. He'll do any project he wants and they don't have to be 100 million extravaganzas. As far as I know, the Pirates movies are his first huge movies. Tom Cruise would've never made The Libertine and will never try to help Terry Gilliam get another movie made, for that alone I'll drink to Depp, even if Wonka blew ass.
Posted by Nick at June 18, 2006 8:57 PM
comment #9
Answer Man says ...
Annie, The Libertine.
Oh, and i'm sick of Johnny Depp.
Posted by Answer Man at June 18, 2006 10:53 PM
comment #10
Amy says ...
Everyone knows Jeff hates Johnny. I can't take his thoughts seriously. Critics (of a sort) who take their dislikes so personal, don't mean very much. I don't particularly like most of the movies that Jeff loves...so I usually know I'll like it, if he hates it. I loved Dead Man, Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing...AND Pirates of the Caribbean.
Posted by Amy at June 19, 2006 4:09 AM
comment #11
goldenhorse says ...
gabriel -- I think he meant people with taste are not sick of Johnny Depp.
Posted by goldenhorse at June 19, 2006 5:05 AM
comment #12
Rich says ...
Jeff may be a little off-his-feed at having been left off of EW's 100 best entertainment websites, and I don't blame him. Whether you agree with him or not, Jeff's stuff is always some of the most thought-provoking on the web dealing with entertainment. And these boards have only served to make the site even more compelling. Here's hoping to his making it next year.
On topic, though, I don't think Jeff hates Johnny as much as he dislikes Johnny putting his talents to use (waste?) in these big tentpole films. As I recall, he really admired Depp in POTC-1, but didn't like the film otherwise. He also congratulated Depp for his near-miss in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I don't agree, but I get his point. (Though Edward's crack about hobbits in POTC-2 is dead-on).
Posted by Rich at June 19, 2006 7:41 AM
comment #13
Gabriel says ...
Oh, okay goldenhorse, thanks for clearing that up. I'll just take my movie cues from Newsweek from now on.
Posted by Gabriel at June 19, 2006 9:22 AM
comment #14
Amy says ...
If someone is "sick of Johnny Depp," then they have to go way out of their way to dig up that hate. He does not do the cover of US, posed with his children, or those other vapid excuses for magazines. He rarely does talk shows. He is probably contracted to do a certain amount of publicity for his movies, but he does it in a limited way. Then, when not promoting a movie, he goes away, quietly, and works and enjoys his family. Even the paparazzi can't find him doing anything much of interest. When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out last summer, he didn't even do one talk show. It was still a hit. So, if your sick of Johnny, it is a strong personal dislike...not because he's always in your face. As for Jeff talking about CATCF, the only thing I remember him saying, is he watched it for 10 minutes and then he left. That movie might not have been for everyone, but a lot of people really liked it...including myself.
Posted by Amy at June 19, 2006 5:28 PM
comment #15
Dave Poland's Gut says ...
Typical Hollywood. Tear down the highest beam and try to bring up someone from the lower set. Name me another movie Depp has made besides Pirates that has been an unquestioned hit? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory??? That's about it.
Posted by Dave Poland's Gut at June 20, 2006 7:01 AM