A long, but thoroughly entertaining film.

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2007)

Stars: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, Lee Arenburg, Kevin McNally, McKenzie Cook, Keith Richards.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. The first Pirates was a great film, and the second was a letdown, and I was hoping this would live up to the expectations of the first...and it didn't. But it came really close, and it was enjoyable. In this installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean", all the chaos from the second film unfurls and the gang gets Captain Jack Sparrow back. If you thought Johnny Depp was strange in the first film, you should see him here playing numerous hallucinations of himself. The main problem with this movie was it didn't quite know what it was. One second it was slapstick comedy, where next it was drama. For the most part they switched back and forth pretty well, but sometimes it just felt odd. Another problem was too much fantasy and unexplained pirate lore, like tipping the ship to make them get to where they were before. But for the most part, this was not a letdown and Prates fans will be pleased.
My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 164 mins. PG-13 for strong violence.