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Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Title: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Director: Gore Verbinski

Stars: Johnny Depp ; Orlando Bloom ; Keira Knightley ; Bill Nighy

Reviewer: Matt Eccles

Rating (out of 10): 5

Review:

It was surely a tribute to the success of 2003’s surprise global smash The Curse Of The Black Pearl that this follow-up made an astonishing $135 million on its opening weekend in the US and became only the third film in history to break $1 billion worldwide. There was alot riding on Dead Man’s Chest: returning director Gore Verbinski and writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio had to ensure pretty much everyone from the first film was back on board and again thrown into a fair share of quirky, amusing set-pieces while spouting bon mots with giddy abandon.

On this front they succeed; on the other hand it is all rather predictable, unnecessarily convoluted and, at 150 minutes, far too flabby. A fairly straightforward premise involving Captain Jack Sparrow’s soul being owed to Davy Jones soon steers off course, encounters stormy waters and but for the grace of the audience barely pulls through.

However, the film has a real revelation in the superb make-up effects of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his phantom crew of half-humans/half-sea beasts. It is this technical brilliance that impresses just as much as Depp, giving another irresistible and barnstorming performance as Sparrow. But overall Dead Man’s Chest is guilty of taking too long to cut to the chase and hence isn’t half as stirring as it should have been.

Buy Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest from Amazon.co.uk