Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2007, Blu-ray Disc)

Avast me hearties! It's time to weigh anchor and hoist the Jolly Roger, cast off and sail the Seven Seas, plundering and looting for dubloons. We'll... What?... "Why," ye ask? Ye don't know what today is? Why ye'll be walking the plank and going to visit Davey Jones' locker with that sort of attitude, you land lubber! It be Talk Like A Pirate Day, when everyone gives in to their secret desires to live a life of real adventure on the high seas. Arrrr, it's good to be a pirate. Now grab yer eye patch and the closest parrot, sit back with a mug of grog and yer favourite wench or cabin boy for we'll be watching our favourite pirate movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl

Adventure/Comedy
Producer - Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbour, Black Hawk Down)
Director - Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt)
2003/143 minutes/Rated PG-13 for action - adventure violence

As the film begins we meet Elizabeth as a young girl. She is the governor's daughter and is on board a ship that happens across another ship burning in the sea, apparently the victim of pirates. A young boy is seen floating past on a piece of wood and rescued. As Elizabeth bends over him she sees he is wearing a strange medallion, which she takes for herself.

Many years later the boy - Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) has now grown and is apprentice to the local blacksmith. Although secretly in love with Elizabeth (Keira Knightley, The Phantom Menace, King Arthur), he is beneath her station in life. The notorious pirate, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, Secret Window, Sleepy Hollow) arrives at the town just in time to save Elizabeth when she falls into the bay. He is really there to steal a ship and seek revenge against Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush, Quills, The Tailor of Panama) the man who led Sparrow's crew to mutiny, steal his ship (The Black Pearl) and leave him on an island to die. Sparrow is recognized as a pirate and arrested. However, he escapes and finds himself in the local blacksmith shop where he and Will sword fight and Sparrow is finally taken off to jail.

When Barbossa arrives and begins ransacking the town, he discovers the medallion in Elizabeth's possession and kidnaps her. When Will is not allowed to go after her, he helps Sparrow escape and they steal a ship. Will wants to rescue Elizabeth and Sparrow wants revenge for the mutiny; it is an uneasy alliance at best. Meanwhile Barbossa reveals to Elizabeth why he kidnapped her and how she factors into his evil plan to escape the curse he and his crew are under.

Pirates of the Caribbean is an extremely fun film. Johnny Depp's portrayal of Sparrow, a charming bad guy with a good heart, is great. With a dry sense of humour and wit, he appears slightly drunk throughout the movie, slurring his words and staggering a little (which made sense after I read on IMDB that he fashioned the character after his friend Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.) Sparrow is a self-assured pirate with a twinkle in his eye who obviously believes he's the smartest and best one of all time. Orlando Bloom does well as the hero who must save his beloved. We get to see a much lighter side of him than the character of Legolas that he played in Lord of the Rings and it's refreshing. The always excellent Geoffrey Rush is perfect as the evil villain. Keira Knightly is adequate as the love interest, damsel in distress but the part could probably have been played by any leading female actress. The sword fights are very well choreographed and exciting. The music (Klaus Badelt, K-19: The Widowmaker, Gladiator) is excellent, with a swashbuckling sound throughout. It enhances the scenes moving from an epic feeling to humourous to suspenseful. The special effects by Industrial Light and Magic are outstanding, especially toward the end of the film when there is a battle in a cave. Costumes are also well done, with nothing seeming to be out of place.

Bonus Features include:

19 deleted and alternate scenes
Bloopers
Numerous audio commentaries
"An Epic at Sea" - The making of the movie
"Below Deck" - An interactive history of pirates
"Fly on the Set" - featurettes
"Diary of a Pirate"
"Diary of a Ship"
Producer's photo diary
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
"Moonlight Serenade" Scene Progression
Image Galleries
French language track and subtitles

Enhanced Computer Features
(requires Windows 98SE or higher, Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, Macromedia Flashplayer 6, internet connection, DVD-ROM drive, DirectShow compatible DVD decoder. Will not work with Apple Mac OS.)

Special effects studio
Disneyland Pirates virtual reality viewer
History of the Attraction
Attraction Image Gallery
Script Scanner
Storyboard Viewer4

This film is good, plain fun. Now me beauties, it be time to do some yo-ho-ho-ing with a bottle of rum!

Talk Like A Pirate Day - http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

For another review featuring pirates, see The Wonderful O.