the corner office

Ronwen and I went to Sandton after work, for a date, ek se. That involved scoffing down take-aways in the Food Hall, (where I burned my palate with an overly-hot St Elmo's pizza which is still hurting - my palate, not the pizza) - and then (this is the real highlight of the post, not my St Elmo's experience) - we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now... Ronwen was bugging me to go see this. We haven't been to movies in months, and if anyone had said that our fast would be broken with a pirate movie, I'd have told 'em to take a long walk on a short plank, so to speak. For whatever reason, the whole pirate movie thing never really floated my boat after the age of 10. Scurvy, sif people with vrot teeth and limbs being hacked off is not my idea of fun, in the greater scheme of celluloid entertainment. That Geena Davis flick from a coupla years ago did nothing but reinforce my disinterest in all things swashbuckling.

Having said that, I shall gladly eat my words, for verily, the movie is brilliant. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow makes the movie. A slightly camp, sun-addled pirate who clearly is a bit more in charge of things than he ever lets on (or not, you never quite know) - is brilliant. "But... why's the rum gone?" Geoffrey Rush is his inimical brilliant self. A number of comedic side parts add to the movie, including that weedy bloke from the Office as a pirate with a wooden eye. Classic! The CGI monstahs were a tad cheesy, but passable. The jury's still out on Orlando Bloom, though. He seems like a nice bloke and you want to enjoy whatever role he plays, but to my mind he just does that whole earnest thing a bit too, uh, earnestly. In Lord of the Rings he got away with it, since as Legolas you could expect an Elf who's lived for a zillion years and knows what a meany Sauron is to take things a little seriously. In this movie, I'm not sure if it worked. Perhaps I just have him typecast with pointy ears, now.

(As an aside, I feel the same thing happened with Hugo Weaving as Elrond in Lord of the Rings, although the Matrix had him pegged first. Ronwen and I have a joke going in that every time we see Elrond in LoTR, we say 'Welcome to Rivendell, Missstrrrr Andrrrsssson'.)

Anway. As Ronwen has expressed undying fondness for Mr Bloom, I shan't feel guilty for venturing forth and expressing my deep admiration of the gifts and talents of Ms Keira Knightley..

In short, a fine, fun movie.