Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

You know what would make a great movie? A film based on a theme park ride! Yeah that would be … what the hell? When I think back to the months of 2003 prior to the release of the film, I must have saw that damn trailer every weekend for 6 months and it was not building excitement. It was building annoyance. Then I sat in the movie theater on its release date and was completely blown away at how good it was. When these films show up, I have to reward them and this may be the best surprise I have seen in recent years.

And Captain Jack Sparrow has arrived. Sometimes you don’t know what you are missing until it shows up. Well we, the movie going public, were in need and Johnny Depp delivered. Enough words of praise have been spoken and/or written over his performance by now so I will keep it short. Are you kidding me? Where the hell did that come from? I could watch that character chew scenery a thousand times and it would never grow old. In fact I think I have watched it a hundred times by now and it has yet to grow old. The thing of it all is that Captain Jack Sparrow is nearly equaled by Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa. Whereas Depp crafted something uniquely his own, Rush plays the classic version of a pirate to perfection. The look, the walk, the speech, it is all there. Those two are the heavy hitters but everyone else makes significant contributions to the final product. Orlando Bloom plays the innocent hero and really what the hell else would you cast the man as? Keira Knightley, well, it is not in my power to ever speak ill of Mr. Knightley so she is perfect casting in my books. Commodore Norrington was a great foil for the three heroes so Jack Davenport must have been doing something right. As for Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, and Kevin McNally they all keep appearing as the comic relief that keeps the story rolling. The story may not be the greatest tale of the high seas but it definitely contains the necessary twists and turns for a summer blockbuster. The only real criticism I have is that the length of the movie certainly crosses the line of comfort but it is a small price to pay for all the good stuff that shows up. Because of all the strong characters knocking around the screen you tend to forget that one of the big draws originally was the skeleton pirates. That is overlooked now but they looked great and the CGI was pretty seamless. The final fight between Jack and Barbossa was impressive when they would step in and out of the moonlight. It was just a great production that has not grown old.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl while not only having a ridiculous name was ridiculously better than it had any right to be. Johnny Depp needs the majority of the credit because his acting became instantly famous and even lead to an Oscar nomination which is just lunacy for a summer movie. Who knew? Who the hell knew that this was going to happen?

9 out of 10