By the time a successful film franchise hits the fourth installment, a certain formula has usually settled in. In the case of Disney’s hit Pirates of the Caribbean movies, such by-now familiar aspects include a complex plot steeped in legendary pirate lore, a rogues’ gallery of mythical and/or magical characters, enough double crosses and double-double [...]
Cate Blanchett is great as one of the wickedest witches since Margaret Hamilton in the marvelous fairy tale/shoot-'em-up hybrid Hanna, opening today nationwide from Focus Features. Though not a literal sorceress, Blanchett's amoral Marissa Wiegler is -- like the green-skinned villainess in The Wizard of Oz -- obsessed with shoes and a teenaged girl who [...]