Good. Job. Gore.

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2006)

Excellent movie, best this summer. It's not Schindler's List, but we don't need soul-searing commentary every time the lights go out. If there aren't a baker's dozen Oscar nominations, then something is foul in Hollywood.
Yep, it was slow and dark at first. Yes, switching back and forth between the three leads was tedious. And the pacing was like an amusement park ride... up, up the rails... stall at the top... then flashing down, speeding around the curves, barely catching your breath before the next surprise. And there are major surprises on this coaster....
1) The Turner/Swann/Sparrow relationship heats up. Shades of Hans Solo/ Princess Leah/ Luke Skywalker! 2) So the local enforcer of the East India Company is in need of... a heart? Cue the corporate hatchet-man jokes.
3) It took looking at the IMDb credits to see that Bootstrap Bill and Davy Jones were two different actors. Bill Nighy is brilliant in anything he does, but Stellan Skarsgard snuck up on me. Hey, he and Keira Knightley were in King Arthur together. Good performances there, too.
4) Cudos for bringing back some of the original crew, including our... er... special guest. Excellent for POTC: World's End.
5) Special mention to Naomie Harris as the conjure woman. It seems I'll have to put on the closed caption to figure out half of what she said, but she did look suitably impressive.
6) The villains are even creepier than in POTC: Black Pearl. How'd they do that? 7) Sand, swords and fresh calamari... yo ho ho!