Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Between four and five stars. Far funnier and more playful than number one. I can't remember a time in a long time when I roared with laughter along with the whole cinema so hard that I had to wipe tears from my eyes, like when the main characters escape from the cannibals. The film has a slower pace in the beginning and has some passages that had me falling asleep (zero hours of sleep a night will have its share of that), but when the filmmakers put their minds to it, it's worth it. Some scenes are so rewarding that it goes to absurd lengths. Case in point, as the three main characters all fence against each other over the chest mentioned in the title, THEN Keira Knightley throws rocks at them, THEN behind her back two pirates are just now stealthily carrying the chest to the ship, THEN all the characters are still fighting over the key to the chest, and THEN some fishermen come out of the sea with the same goal. I'm not counting the continuation of the scene, where ON TOP OF THAT they add a mill wheel. For my part, I like that kind of bombastic playfulness, combined with Johnny Depp tickling my diaphragm again (maybe even more than in the first one), I'd really feel sorry about that four. (03/08/2006)

The most treacherous part of the trilogy not only in terms of character actions. Perhaps it would be appropriate to say that the second part deserved to be cut and combined with the third into one movie, but it probably wouldn't work. I myself have caught myself wanting to watch Pirates all the time, even though it doesn't mean that Dead Man's Chest is flawless. It is really overloaded, some plotlines are pointless (cannibals), some desperately unremarkable, but who cares when it's such fun. The endlessly mentioned fight on the mill wheel and everything around it, together with the final Kraken performance, is a true adrenaline delight. (30/05/2007)

In the wake of the more than solid part one, Jack Sparrow, excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow doesn’t spoil his reputation, but nor does he improve it much. And in places this looks almost too much like a mundane feet-up blockbuster. Luckily the picture is stopped from sinking under the waters of the Caribbean (again) by Depp. Although the movie is tripped up significantly by the creators who try to include Jack in all possible situations. We get two really successful scenes (cannibal island and the sword-fight over the key to the treasure chest) filled with watchable stuffing, impressive production design and entertainment for the whole family, so the Buena Vista financial department will certainly be pleased. P.S. after watching again several years later: I liked it a lot better second time round. So much that most of my original objections no longer seemed to matter. (06/08/2006)

A ride in which you alternately switch from a Trabant to a racing car. However, this unbalanced mix of lengthy workarounds, overstuffed plot and diabolical action is still worth seeing, if only because of the amazing Billy "Davy Jones" Nighy, who proves that even with just the eyes and suggestive voice modulation you can perform miracles. (14/08/2006)

Needless bombast and excessive length versus great sea monsters and a slimy (literally and to the letter!) villain played by Bill Nighy and his makeup/digital magicians. Johnny Depp is equally good, but he has nothing left to surprise us with. Throw out part of that storyline and cut the runtime down to 120 minutes, and this would be worthy of four stars. (08/08/2006)