Captain of the Ship

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2004)

One name strikes contempt into this reviewers heart: Jerry Bruckheimer
He is to producing what Ron Howard, Peter Weir, and Michael Bay are to directing; a loud, noisy individual with nothing useful to say. Yet what makes this movie so interesting? Does that question need to be answered?
This is your only spoiler warning...
There are two types of crew to this movie. There's the crew that plays it straight and there's the crew that either elaborates or plays against the norm. The directing is dull, Gore Verbinski still hasn't made any impression on me after 'Mouse Hunt', 'Mexican', and 'Ring'. He's been getting steadily better in his final products though. Is it accident or serendipity? The production designer and editors join him as the clueless individuals.
The ones playing against it all are the writers and photographer. Despite the boring incident that was 'Crimson Tide' (another Bruckheimer effort), Wolski showed talent with 'Crow' and 'Dark City'. Here he creates what 'Goonies' wanted to be. The writers come from such notorious work as 'Aladdin', 'Godzilla', 'Small Soldiers', and 'Mask of Zorro', but this shows an actual interest in their work. Stereotypes are played against (the blood of the virgin doesn't break the curse, Depp's mighty boat, etc.) and Depp makes it work.
If Depp hadn't been on this excursion then it would have been like 'Waterworld'--nothing remarkable, quickly forgotten. Since Depp knows this material (and is having a lolly-gagging good time with it), he puts a plethora of energy into it. Everyone else is too busy being serious--similar to Burton's first 'Batman'.
That has me interested enough to want to look into the sequel.
Final Analysis = = Midrange Material