A below-average action comedy

Rating: 3/10 (27 September 2004)

Having fond childhood memories of old pirate movies and stories, I was really looking forward to watch this one. I certainly didn't expect some brain challenging epic, but good entertainment. I was disappointed.
Many things may be said of old, classic movies, but one thing is certain, they generally had good scripts. What has happened to good Hollywood scriptwriters? Don't they exist anymore or are they all working for TV at HBO? This film has a potentially good story and a completely pathetic script that results in a plot that most of the time makes no sense whatsoever, with bad dialogue lines, and awkward twists trying to disguise as "complex turns". Simple bad writing.
At least they got someone witty to write Captain Jack Sparrow's lines. Without doubt, the one outstanding thing about this movie is Johny Deep's character and his rendition of it. It is very funny and thoroughly enjoyable. Depending how you look at it, Deep's performance is either wasted in this movie, or saves it.