Magician Pirates in Apartment Pools?

I saw three movies over the weekend:

Pirates of the Carribean: Johnny Depp, along with good special effects, helped save this movie a bit for me. He's very good and the movie is kind of funny and fun to watch. My complaint is it leaves off as a cliffhanger. We all must now tune into May's release of the next installment to find out how it ends?

I hate that! Its not fair to the viewer. I know II and III were shot at the same time, but movies should never anticipate the viewer "loved" it so much they'll shell out more money to find out how it all ends. I'm not exactly dying to see this next installment and I just might not out of spite. Futhermore, it appears movies inspired by amusement park rides have a shelf life of one and one half installments. My official rating is "eh".

Lady in the Water: I'm thinking that M. Night Shyamalan may have expired his shelf life too. VERY disappointing! I love most of his other stuff and I find how he manipulates the viewer compelling. I even liked The Village which was somewhat panned. This movie, however, lacked all of the cleverness and slight of hand he normally employs. It wasn't even suspenseful! There were 10 million characters who were all kind of thrown together hodge-podge and we're supposed to believe they all give a shit whether Opie's daughter finds her way back home. Even Paul Giamatti, as the main character, couldn't save this one and I have to question why he took this role. Oh, maybe a big check? M. Night....come back to us. You've lost your way! Amaze us. Trick us. Anything. Just please, no more of this crap. I rate this "boooooo".

The Illusionist: I went into this with high hopes since I'm a big Edward Norton fan. He is excellent in almost everything he does and in The Illusionist he doesn't disappoint. Its a quiet and subtle movie also starring Paul Giamatti as a Police Chief Inspector. Shot in a sort of "gauzed" effect with flickers and all to better throw the viewer into the turn of the century time period in which it takes place.

Norton is a master magician who was torn away from his upper-class teenage love interest only to be reunited with her 15 or so years later when she is set to marry the Crown Prince of Austria. Needless to say, they renew their affair, which, of course, complicates things and results in a murder. There's suspense and mystery and fine acting to compel one to the end as the viewer is left to wonder how it will all play out. I rate this "see it".