Pirates of the Caribbean 1 - C+

On DVD. Rated PG-13, 133 minutes.

After not seeing this for 4 years and the episode detailed below, I thought it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Um, I still can't figure that out.

Aside from Johnny Depp's admittedly brilliant interpretation of the Captain Jack Sparrow character and a few spots of clever dialogue, this movie was terrible. I am all for elaborate pirate curse plots, but this one was inconsistent and had holes in it large enough to drive a boat through (rim shot, please). For starters, the 'curse' was to 'not be able to feel, or experience life', but at the same time conferred immortality on the 'cursed'. I won't go on, because its pointless.

Several of Depp and Geoffrey Rush's lines are funny, especially when Sparrow replies to the (always) stiff Orlando Bloom's protests that he isn't fighting fair. His one word reply "Pirate" is funny and, given the rest of the script, likely to have been ad-libbed.

The interesting thing about the Pirates franchise is that it is only successful because of the Sparrow character and Depp's interpretation thereof. When Depp initially rolled out his character, he was nearly replaced on the movie by the 'suits' who tried to get him to tone it down.