Welcome to another episode of Highbrow! Lowbrow? the movie review podcast where Shaun and Jesse compare the Top Box Office Earner and the Best Picture Academy Award Winner of the same year. We take a look at the critical consensus and the mass appeal to try and get to the heart of what makes a movie really great. The year we look at is 2006 and the films we discuss are Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Lowbrow) and The Departed (Highbrow).
The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, stars Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio as two sides of the same coin, both young up and comers in the police department. However, they both are insiders on opposing organizations, Damon an informant for the gangster Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson), Dicaprio a snitch for the undercover unit lead by Queenan (played by Martin Sheen). There are a lot of big performances in this film, most notably Jack Nicholson as the devilish Frank Costello, who revels in his debauchery. Dicaprio is able to keep up with everyone else by playing the heart of this movie with a fiery passion. Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen all deliver strongly in this film with strong characters and big attitudes. Matt Damon plays a convincing foil to Dicaprio, a more leveled and cool character, who portrays his conflict underneath, trying to justify his role in all the mayhem. Scorses finally scored the Best Picture Award for this film, more of a recognition of his storied career. Despite the movie clocking in at 151 min, the time isn't felt due to the deft editing and exciting pacing of the story. This is yet another strong outing from a legendary director who brings all the elements together to make a truly great film that can be enjoyed by many.
Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, directed by Gore Verbinski, has Captain Jack Sparrow, played famously by Johnny Depp, searching for the heart of Davy Jones to control the seas, while William (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Kiera Knightley) try to reunite and live happily ever after. Though Depp plays Sparrow with a classic zeal, this movie still feels like more of the same. The plot can be pretty convoluted and hastily explained where you're left wondering what really is going on. To make up for the that, they pile on the effects and the action to almost a ridiculous level, but at a certain point you just begin to tune out. Although there are fun action sequences and impressive effects, the lackluster story and overloaded visuals are wearisome.
So what film did we end up siding with? The visual effects feast of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest or the gritty crime thriller The Departed? Be sure to tune in and check out the latest Highbrow! Lowbrow? to find out.
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