Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest
DVD released 2006
Running time: 150 minutes
Seemed like 175
*** out of four stars

Dead Man's Chest (or Curse of the Sequel of Curse of the Black Pearl), carries a lot of dead weight. It relies heavily on the first movie for both the storytelling and the humor. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember enough of the first movie to understand a lot of the jokes or the story.

I enjoyed the first POTC. Johnny Depp was a hoot, Orlando Bloom was secondary enough to not reveal he's just eye-candy, and the novelty of associating the movie as the back story to the Disneyland ride gave it a sentimental edge. My favorite part was the guys in jail trying to get the keys from the dog, JUST LIKE IN THE RIDE I RODE WHEN I WAS 10! The rest of the story was just fun.

Dead Man's chest tries to take itself seriously. They want us to care about the intrigue of family relationships and trysts with the devil (or Davey Jones.) WHY? Can't it just be silly action? The special effects, BTW, were very good. The makeup for Davey Jones' crew was gruesomely grand, and the digital octopus was quite lifelike. The soundtrack was well done and will be a great addition to my mp3 collection.

Depp's role stole the movie, of course. His flaming selfishness, and cowardly ambitions are conveyed through this weirdo. And what great makeup with the eight eyes.

None of the other actors deserve mention in this forgettable film. While some productions manage to entertain both children and adults at the same time, this film got lost and probably scares kids and bores adults. Then, horror of horrors, it sets up another sequel at the end.

Don't bother with this.