Mediocre Roller Coaster Ride + Outstanding Johnny Depp

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2005)

I have to admit that I also really enjoyed this movie a lot in 2003 when it was showing at the cinema and I also thought it was one of the best movies of this year. The strange thing is: I ve seen it again on DVD now and it - for some reason I can not explain - rather bored me. It has great actors, fantastic settings, but the story is not more than "okay" (it has some far-fetched useless halfhearted twists in it) and in the end one feels like having seen a teaser for Walt Disney parks ... and that s probably what the film actually is: a roller-coaster ride with some narrative lengths (it s far too long for a real exciting roller-coaster ride).
Johnny Depp s acting is absolutely outstanding though (selfironical overacted, rather camp without being really gay). I also believe that Depp himself would not say that it s one of the best movies he played in (hopefully not), but probably one of the best payed jobs he s done (hopefully). Without Depp the movie would probably be quite boring and "cheap" (in the meaning of "cheap tricks"), with Depp it s at least well entertaining and particularly quite funny.
At last: this is definitely not a movie one has to see twice. While other movies develop a higher quality after being watched for the second, third,... time this movie loses a lot of quality when seen for the second time.
6/10