Splice me timbers and shiver the mainbrace. (Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl (DVD))

Member Name: T-Boy67

Product:	Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl (DVD)
Date:	27/09/03 (417 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Exciting, Ghosts

Disadvantages: Bit long

Avast there my hearties, but enough about my weight problem and on with the swashing of buckles.

~Synopsis~

On a journey out to the Caribbean, Elizabeth, a young English girl spots a young boy floating on some wreckage of what looks like a fierce sea battle. He is the only survivior of a pirate attack. The girl takes a medallion from his neck thinking he is a pirate, to make sure he is kept safe. Years later when these two are grown up, she is the daughter of the local governor and he, Will, is a lowly blacksmith's apprentice. After Elizabeth falls into the sea wearing the old medallion, a ghostly pirate ship and her fearsome crew mysteriously arrive and abduct the beautiful girl. It is up to Will and a recently captured pirate, Jack Sparrow to try to rescue her. But is Jack Sparrow as nice as he seems? Will they rescue the fair maid? And what's this curse all about anyway?

~Cast & Crew~

Johnny Depp.............Jack Sparrow
Geoffrey Rush...........Barbossa
Orlando Bloom...........Will Turner
Keira Knightley.........Elizabeth Swann
Jack Davenport..........Norrington
Jonathan Pryce..........Governor Weatherby Swann
Mackenzie Crook.........Ragetti
Giles New...............Murtogg
Angus Barnett...........Mullroy
Kevin McNally...........Joshamee Gibbs

Gore Verbinski.............Director

Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio.....Screenplay


I love theme parks. I'm a big fan of Disney theme parks. So when I heard that Disney were starting to make a policy decision about basing movies on theme park rides, I was a little bit disturbed to say the least. It's usually the other way round and after a movie is successful, then it can be immortalised with some anamatronic creations and a fun, but not too scary ride. This is like wanting to turn gold into lead, was my first thought. The first movie released from this new era in Disney moviemaking was The Country B
ears, based on a sit-down theatre show with some robot bears singing some country and western songs. That movie stank. It got a 3.4 average (out of 10) from the Internet Movie Database and Yahoo users rated it mediocre. It was so badly recieved and also did awful business at the box office, raking in under half of the production costs, that it didn't even warrant a cinema release in the UK, it went straight to video nearly a year later. So, did Disney learn their lesson? No, they plowed on and announced two more movie/ride conversions. I have to admit to being well and truly horrified by this suggestion and I was gleefully awaiting the downfall of these silly movies. The Haunted Mansion (Disney's version of a ghost train), which I'm still expecting to be pants, as it stars Eddie Murphy and his choice of movies hasn't been inspired of late, and this - Pirates Of The Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl.

So is this film pants? Well, if those pants are the most smartly tailored, Saville Row type pants, then yes, yes it is. I am using the Northern definition of pants to mean trousers, not the Southern jessie definition of undies. I'd happily put these pants on again and again. Johnny Depp is the hard-drinking, morally suspect pirate, Jack Sparrow. Depp has created here a very funny character and one which I'm sure we haven't seen the last of. I read that he actually based his character on Keith Richards, which once you've seen the film you'll really appreciate this. One thing I was very impressed with was his british accent. The last time he tried an english accent was in From Hell and it was diabolical, although not as bad as my personal (least) favourite, Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven. Depp is obviously enjoying himself enormously and this helps you warm to his rather suspect persona.

Oscar wnner, Geoffrey Rush is the bad guy, Captain Barbossa, who does more than just chew the furniture, i
t's almost as though he's eating every last prop as well. Rush creates a very memorable villain as he isn't purely painted purely evil, but there are parts of him that you feel very sympathetic towards and other times you are baying for his blood.

Orlando Bloom (now settle down ladies, well the other ladies who haven't already swooned at the sight of Johnny Depp, that is) is the young hero in this tale. He is really just required to look handsome and to be able to pick up a sword at the right moment. He aquits himself in this way with aplomb. His training during his 3 years playing Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy have really paid off as he looks every inch the young Errol Flynn.

Keira Knightley, who is now the toast of Hollywood after her performance in this and also Bend It Like Beckham which has only just opened at the cinema in the US (and it's doing very good considering it's a Low-Budget British movie), makes a very attractive heroine, who just about manages to not be the scream-and-run-about kind of damsel-in-distress.

It was nice to see a host of British Actors in all the supporting roles, Jonathan Pryce, Kevin McNally and Jack Davenport all aquitted themselves nicely and it was especially pleasing to see Mackenzie Crook (Gareth from the TV comedy, The Office) doing very well in the role of Ragetti, the one-eyed pirate with the wooden eye with a mind of it's own. I heard that due to his excellent comic timing during filming that they actually added more and more things for him to do.

Director Gore Verbinski has a very mixed bag when it comes to his credits, his last film was The Ring, a very good remake of the modern Japanese horrror movie of the same name. The Mexican was considered a big flop. But here he is very assured with his direction and manages to keep everything on an even keel (sorry) and helps you forget that this is essentiall just a capture, chase, escape, chase, cap
ture, chase, escape, chase movie. There is a great sense of fun throughout the movie and you can imagine that the cast and crew were enjoying themselves as much as the audience do watching it.

The writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio have crafted a fine adventure that is almost cartoon like. It comes as no surprise then to find that they also created animated movies, The Road To Eldorado, Treasure Planet and Shrek and the upcoming Shrek 2. They also wrote the equally swash-buckling, the Mask of Zorro, so they know about swordfighting.

As I've ridden Pirates of the Caribbean in both Disney World in Florda and Disneyland in Paris (a number of times), I was actually delighted to see the amount of actual parts of the ride that make appearances into the movie. In the first shot of the film, a ghostly fog through which a young girl appears at the prow of a ship and is softly singing the song that the pirates sing on the ride. This song appears a couple of more times through the film leading to one of the better (in) jokes. Another lovely cameo from the ride is the dog holding the key to a prison cell being called to by some poor chaps behind the bars, trying to get him to give them the key. The dog is an almost perfect recreation of the animatronic dog on the ride. There are a few more scenes which have moments from the ride too, but they are never
overplayed and only someone who really remembers the ride will fully appreciate how well integrated they are.

It is also great to watch a successful Pirate movie as the last couple of big budget buccaneer films have walked the plank of the Box-Office and sunk to Davy Jones Locker. Roman Polanski's Pirates was a huge flop and Cutthroat Island was a great turkey too, so it was very brave of Disney to say, OK, now is the time to make a new pirate movie. And I for one am very glad they did.

I have seen this movie twice now at the cinema as my Dad wanted to see it after I had
talked about it so much and he thoroughly enjoyed it too. I'm glad that I saw it again as there were a couple of things in the film which didn't quite make sense, but one of them was cleared up on the second viewing. There is just one final story hole which I won't divulge, as I don't want to spoil the story, that even on second viewing doesn't seem to re resolved. If anyone wants to e-mail me to discuss it please feel free.

Don't forget to sit through almost 10 minutes of credits as there is a final moment after everything has finished. I won't spoil it for you, but it's a fun little mini-twist.

Summary: