Action, comedy, effects. Great summer fun.

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2003)

So many cool movies come out during the summer, but for some reason, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the films I was most interested in. It just looked so fun and stylish and cool. The pirate theme is too underused in movies. So anyway, I got to see it on opening day, and it was as good as I had hoped. Here's a few reasons you should go see Pirates of the Caribbean, me bucko:
1) Johnny Deep. Ya gotta hand it to Depp for giving his character Captain Jack Sparrow such a unique personality. He fumbles into a lot of bad luck (and jail cells), but is always able to use his charm and skill to get out of it. His body language and style of speech are awesome, which makes for a very memorable character. The rest of the cast is great too, in particular Geoffrey Rush as the cruel pirate Captain Barbossa. But it's Johnny Deep who makes this movie.
2) Undead pirates! With all due respect to Ray Harryhausen's sword-fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, this cursed crew has to be the coolest bunch of skeletons I've seen on screen. It's an impressive effect when they move in and out of moonlight. Must have been a nightmare for ILM animators, with so much detail... bones and hair and tattered clothing. And then to stick dozens of these skeletons in fights with live actors? Wow. I actually would have enjoyed seeing more scenes with the moonlit monsters. But ye scurvy dogs who don't like too much CG stuff, will be glad to know the movie has plenty of other swashbuckling action that doesn't rely on animated effects. With a running time of around 2 hours, 20 minutes, there's enough time for a little of everything.
3) Comedy. Pirates of the Caribbean isn't an all out comedy, but there's a boatload of humor. Especially from Jack Sparrow and some of Barbossa's bungling crew. I was laughing quite a bit, either from actual jokes, visual gags, or just the absurd situations. It's really a witty script. The story isn't all that complicated, but I liked the way they revealed things as they go, so the plot isn't totally predictable. I hear it's the first Disney film to get a PG-13 rating... I assume because the skeletal pirate violence could give little kids nightmares. But the rest is good family fun so I think this should appeal to a wide audience. So check it out, me hearties. Yo-ho!