Ari & Sam

Pyrates is the kind of movie that would never be considered for an award. But it is not as bad as I expected. The concept is unusual, and the humor warped enough to keep you entertained. Yes, there are some slow spots but there are some extremely funny routines as well and overall it is oddly appealing. Definitely worth a check at the rental video shop.

I thought it would be cheesy and corny, and I wasn't far wrong. It starts out that way. The movie can be divided into thirds. First the corn-ball contrivance of having a fire start every time they make love. Perhaps it was obvious to everyone that no one can stomach 90 minutes of THAT. So fortunately it evolves into a romantic comedy where the two lovers are seen bouncing off friends (and their lovers), colleagues, therapists. There are no family members, which is just as well because such characters would probably over-complicate things. In the last third it becomes a "relationship" movie. This is totally a lightweight fluff piece, but there are enough snippets of pseudo-clever, mildly amusing dialogue and almost charming, quirky characters to give the viewer the sense that the time wasn't completely wasted. Similar to Singles except the scenes are less well connected and fail to hit target as often. That and the fact that Singles is about several relationships, any one of which was more interesting than Kevin's and Kyra's in Pyrates.