Fun and frolics on the high seas with Cap'ns Depp and Rush. High summer camp but not quite the masterpiece it could have been

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2003)

Johnny Depp and co shiver their timbers, hoist the mains'l and buckle their swashes in this jolly romp on the high seas.
The, frankly, bonkers plot sees much toing and froing and double double crossing as Jack Sparrow tries to reclaim his ship, the semi-mythical Black Pearl, now captained by Barbarossa. He in turn is hell bent on lifting the curse on him and his men by trying to recover an ancient Aztec coin belonging to British Governor's daughter, Elizabeth Swann.
Depp steals the show as brain-addled pirate, Jack Sparrow. Geoffrey Rush hams it up as Jack Sparrow's nemesis Barbarossa but lacks the true menace of, say, Alan Rickman in Robin Hood. Keira Knightley is the spunky love interest, Elizabeth Swann while Orlando Bloom once again dons tights for his action role as her unrequited love.
The other standout performance is that of Jack Davenport as Keira Knightley's fiance. British viewers will know Davenport as Miles from the BBC's This Life. Here he returns to form as the sneering, preening, supercilious Commodore Norrington after his shot in the BBC's lamentable 'comedy' Coupling.
Strangely, the action scenes are leaden, lacking the panache of the Errol Flynn-like movies of yesteryear. These needed better editing and, in fact, the slow second act could have done with some judicious pruning, easily losing fifteen to twenty minutes off the running time.
However, all in all, great fun that rises head and shoulders over the rest of the summer's disappointing releases.