Ready to Rent Ready to Rent (December 05, 2003)

The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Disney Home Video VHS & DVD 2 hrs 23 mins Director: Gore Verbinski

I went to go see "The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in hopes of finding the perfect vegetation device for my poor brain after a taxing art final for school and an exceptionally horrible work-week. I'm happy to report that this film filled the requirement. In fact, writing this review required more thinking than the actual experience of the film. This $100-million-plus epic about vengeful pirate ghosts represents the cut above mediocrity that has plagued behemoth summer films for the past 20 years or so, where the sound of the register beeps away with every glossy fireball that bleeds from the screen. The best part of the film, by far, is the deservedly praised performance that Johnny Depp squeezes out of his trippy Capt. Jack Sparrow. Always the king of the bizarre, Depp has been our most underrated character actor since his punk-porcelain monster in "Edward Scissorhands." His role as Jack Sparrow in "The Pirates" will possibly lift the unclassifiable Depp into the stratosphere he deserves. Sparrow toddles like a ballet dancer in a drunken stupor, lisping and muttering to himself in such a way that he comes across like "Popeye" with a drug problem.

The film, however hard it tries, represents the second decline of Disney creativity since its saccharine cookie cutter days of the 1960s when empty films like "The Happiest Millionaire" almost ruined the studio. Based upon the Disney theme park ride (!), "Pirates of the Caribbean" launches into a supernatural tale of vengeful ghosts that haunt the seas looking for a cursed treasure. There are big explosions, skeleton pirates, a really long sword fight, Keira Knightley as the 12-year-old-looking love interest and Geoffrey Rush (remember when he won the Academy Award for best actor? - he doesn't). "Pirates" bears the Disney logo before the titles and seems to be the next strange wave of Disney & Co. fare, where homogenized stories are ripped off from earlier Disney films and then filtered through the hip meter of the moment. It's essentially a reworking of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," which was a reworking of "Mary Poppins," which was a reworking of ... well, you understand. I'd almost say it is a type of creative genius, where a dozen ideas are tossed up into the air to use the ones that land face up. By the end, however, it is too long and overwhelming for both adult and child. @reviewertag:-Joe Ramirez

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