Director:  Gore Verbinski		Released:  July 2003
Writer:  Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Jay Wolpert		MPAA Rating:  PG-13
Players:  Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightley		Running time:  143 minutes

Longest.  Title.  Ever.

Johnny Depp is getting all the ink, but for my money, the best performance is from Geoffrey Rush.  His evil pirate is evil.  And smart.  I'm not a big Geoffrey Rush fan, but I really liked him in this.  I like Depp's performance a lot, it's very unique, but it didn't captivate me as much as Rush.  He knows how to snarl like a pirate just right.

The visual effects by ILM are fantastic.  I think it's the best work they've done in years.  Many of the effects are seamless and look completely realistic.  And the work on the cursed pirates is excellent, pirates jumping in and out of the moonlight, it's great.

I enjoyed this film, it's popcorn for sure, and sometimes that's fine.  Sometimes you just want to kick back and watch a movie, plot and story and logic be damned.

However ... what's with the ending?  There's one character who is chasing down pirates, trying to get his woman to marry him, battling pirates, killing pirates, trying to save his woman from pirates.  Then at the end, he lets the pirate go, and lets his woman leave with another man.  What the ... ?!  After all that friction and anger throughout the picture, and then he's like, "peace out, catch you later."  I just don't get that.  It's a total reversal of character, and a cop out.

Full disclosure: The Pirates of the Caribbean has always been my favorite ride at Disneyland.

- crocoPuffs

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