High Seas Hi-jinx of the very best order.

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2003)

I enjoyed the ride so thought the film should get an equal chance to impress, and it did! The basic story centres around the Black Pearl and it's crew,captained by Barbossa brilliantly played out by Geoffrey Rush, searching the world for certain gold medallions and a sacrifice to bring them back to the land of the living but with Sparrow, that's Captain Jack Sparrow accompanied on this adventure by Orlando Bloom , it is not going to be that easy. The casting was a breath of fresh air using talented actors that might not be well known to some film goers who played the deadpan humour perfectly, an english thing, and you had no feeling that they were out to upstage each other, an american thing, and was impressed at how they all seemed to relish their parts. The effects are superb, especially the seamless swapping from walking dead to salty sea dog scenes. ILM never fail to get it right, or are they real??? The only thing I couldn't quite get to grips with was Johnny Depps' accent, it was border line Tommy Cooper, an english thing, and gave the impression he was drunk throughout the movie, a pirate thing(?), however, he played the part with such an off the wall air that he did enough to impress. I would have liked to have seen a few more 'real' pirate scenes given their apparent notoriety. I recommend this film for high sea adventure and subtle humour and some good old fashioned sword play without a lazer in sight! One word though, for those who leave before the credits end, never understood why, there is a final scene that is amusing and possibly leaves a 2nd film in the pipeline.