My AMC marathon came to an end At World’s End. I decided to risk the curse of the “3″ yet again and see the latest installment of Pirates of Carribbean (POC).

I loved the first one a lot. I had no expectations and hit at a time that I just wanted to have fun at the movies. I was pleased when they made the right references to the ride and I was satisfied with how things ended. Given the box office it earned that year, the ending became more of a “guideline.”

I heard they filmed Part 2 and 3 at the same time. I exeperienced this twice before — let’s review, shall we:

• Back to the Future — There was concern that Michael J. Fox would outgrow the role. While Parts 2 and 3 can be minor distractions, some concern towards story would have helped.
• Matrix — In my opinion, the story ended with the first one, but everyone got greedy. ‘Nuff said.

What is notable about the the two previous examples is that Part 2 is largely forgettable in the overall story arc. POC at least put some important plot points in Part 2 to make it relevant. Which now brings us to Part 3.

We pick up with the immediate mission of recovering Jack Sparrow. This mission seems to cover the first half of a long movie (2 hours, 45 minutes). Then it becomes the battle that we are waiting for.

Gore Verbinski shot a beautiful movie, but I was left wanting more exposition in certain areas and less time spent on some visuals. That said, it could have been worse — a lot worse.

I saw it on digital projection, which was nice. The music was wonderful and the story was ok. It satisfied cleaning up plot points from Part 2 and had a decent ending.

My advice: matinee to full price — need to see it on the big screen for full appreciation, but nowhere near as good as POC 1. If you do go, make sure to stay through the entire credits — like the first two, there is a scene at the end….

Movie Numero Dos in the Sunday AMC marathon had me moving from the world of con men to the world of unexpected party gifts for one-night stands.

Spaldy is always telling me that I must watch certain things and, stubbornly, I refuse. One such refusal was Freaks and Geeks, a short-lived TV show that was followed by Undeclared, another short-lived TV show. Judd Apatow followed these by teaming up with Will Ferrell to make Anchorman and Talladega Nights. With a little money in the bank, Apatow was able to focus on The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which became a big hit for him and Steve Carrell. One of the funnier sidekicks in that film, Seth Rogen, got promoted to headliner in this latest offering.

Rogen plays a slacker hanging out with four other guys, doing all sorts of activities. It is here that you see Apatow rely on his favorites of Jason Segel, Leslie Mann, and Paul Rudd. They add to the fun here as we see Katherine Heigel and Rogen deal with the unexpected pregnancy that results from their one-night stand (not a spoiler given the title).

What I was impressed with was the honesty shown onscreen of two people very scared about the aspect of being parents combined with doing the courtship in reverse. I was laughing my butt off for most of the movie, with a great cameo from Katherine Wiig of SNL. One of my favorite parts was watching Ryan Seacrest have a rant on celebrities that made me almost hope that it was ad-libbed.

My advice: full-price — a fun time to be had, but not a date flick unless you do not care about language or do not worry about what it may do for your chances for after-movie activities…

A lazy Sunday afternoon found me going to the AMC for a marathon of movies, 3 in all.  I started off with Ocean’s 13.

Now, if you remember my previous reviews, I spoke of the curse of the “3″ and how this summer seemed to be the glut of sequels.  I still can not believe how many movies we have this year that are the third in a series.  I was just hoping that Ocean’s would not be yet another disappointment.

And maybe that is what helped me in this movie — I went in with no expectations because I had not heard about it until about a month ago.  With no hype-built expectations, I was able to enjoy a popcorn movie for what it was, fluff.

To add perspective, I love watching the original Ocean’s 11 with Sinatra and the Rat Pack.  Nice, fun flick that looked like fun for the guys doing it.  Then Clooney came out with his remake and I was mildly surprised; it was one of a handful of remakes that I actually liked.  Ocean’s 12 came out and I thought they jumped the shark, but it was forgivable given the amount of fun they had on-screen.  While I do not doubt that they had fun, it did not seem as much fun as the other two to make.

Everybody except Julia Roberts returns, and maybe it is her playfulness in the “boys’ club” that made the first two fun.  Al Pacino was brought in to play the target this time around and he is having fun, as if Michael Corleone decided to ham it up a bit.  One of my favorite lines was from Elliot Gould doing a paraphrase of a line from “The Godfather” — the sad thing is that only 2 other people out of a mostly-sold theater got it as we were the only three to laugh.

Overall, a decent movie that reminds you of the allure of Vegas and why we love it.

My advice: matinee to full price — you won’t feel cheated if you do pay full price…