phungus's Full Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black P...
Pirates of the Caribean is the perfect summer movie. It is fun to watch, full of action and laughs, and you won't leave the theatre feeling disappointed or insulted. If anything, go see it because it is not a sequel. While the movie is based on the Disney theme park ride, about the only thing the two have in common is their name and the fact that they both involve pirates.
The film opens with a ship finding a little boy floating in the ocean. The boy, who grows up to be a blacksmith played by Orlando Bloom (the elf Legolas from the LOTR movies) and has a shady past. Now enter the governor's Natalie Portman-lookalike daughter, a haughty military type, and you've got some romantic competition. Pretty soon Johnny Depp shows up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and the movie is pure fun from then on out.
The basic plot is that some pirates (led by a scabby-looking Geoffrey Rush) stole a chest full of cursed mayan gold, and it turned them all into undead, sort of like zombies. Only in moonlight do you see their true nature. In order to lift the curse, they have to recover all of the pieces of gold and bring them back to the chest. The governor's daughter has that piece of gold, which she took off the young boy who they had found floating in the opening scene. She took it so that her family would not think he was a pirate.
Johnny Depp's character first comes off as a bumbling pirate. Sort of like the Gilligan of pirates. As the story progresses, we found out that there is a lot more depth and history to his character. Depp's charisma is in top form with this role, and he plays it perfectly. If anything, go see the movie just for his performance.
Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Mouse Hunt) gets very Spielberg-esque with this film. The movie has a classy kind of quality that reminded me of Spielberg's earlier work, such as the Indiana Jones films. There is comic relief, but it isn't cheesy and childish like some of the parts in The Mummy movies. The stunts are all nicely done and the special effects are quite good. I especially liked that the effects are not relied upon heavily. It is the actors and story that make this movie worth seeing.
Pirates of the Caribean is rated PG-13, due mostly to violence. There is not any nudity and I don't remember any profanity that you wouldn't hear on regular television. I would be really careful about taking younger kids to see this one.
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