Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

By Anne Brodie Jul 6, 2006, 1:29 GMT

Johnny Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow and is caught in yet another tangled web of supernatural intrigue. It turns out, Captain Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. If Jack can\'t figure a crafty way out of this one, he\'ll be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation. And as if that ...more

This second offering in the Pirate franchise is as hotly anticipated as ‘The DaVinci Code’ was. The perfect storm of Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, a foolproof writing and direction team and ribald stories from the Caribbean set is about to blow into town.

Dead Man’s Chest is even better, scarier and “gayer” than the original and that is saying something.
Depp’s Jack Sparrow is as out there as we have ever seen in a mainstream children’s film. Sparrow gives Keira Knightly a good old kiss, but it’s key to the plot and he has that far away look in his eye.

His wardrobe is cross-gendered and his eye makeup – sexy!

As Depp has famously said, he based Sparrow on firm heterosexuals Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew, but throws in the out thing himself. It has just been announced that Richards will appear as Sparrow’s father in the third Pirates outing.

British gem Bill Nighy is onboard playing the sadistic and undead Davy Jones, who tore out his own heart for love and is now scanning the oceans to find it. Jones’ appearance is frankly and loudly repulsive, maggots and worms crawl in and out of him, and he appears to be part octopus.

Eeeww!! 

Uglier still is his soul, darkened by years of hatred, bitterness and heartache. He blames Sparrow for his sad undead life. He is a wonderfully creepy addition to the series.

Jones’ crew of phantom henchmen/slaves is equally disgusting and must be seen to be believed. What kind of mind actually dreamed up these images? I’d like to shake his hand because these are innovative images in the derivative CGI’d- to-death contemporary film canon.

Depp is charged with finding Jones’ missing chest, retrieve the still-beating heart and return it.

It’s a blood debt he owes and there is a kind of honour among thieves on the bounding main.

If he doesn’t he fears he’ll be made a slave on Jones’ Flying Dutchman, tied to the maggot master for eternity. So it’s not all noble.

Bloom and Keira Knightley return as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who are itching to get hitched.

Unfortunately, they are arrested and sentenced to death in a sting to rid the seas of pirates. The East India Trading Company is anxious to reduce competition and loss of personnel in battles with any ship carrying the dreaded pirates’ black flag.

Bloom’s role seems somewhat reduced and Knightley’s pumped up, as she dons seafarer’s clothes and joins the Black Pearl crew. She has lots of spunk and gumption, rivaling veteran pirates in making the enemy sweat.

Sparrow and his men seek shelter on land, a jungle island where they feel safe from Jones’ sea monsters. Here the film veers heavily into ‘Apocalypse Now’ country, played for laughs. Sparrow becomes king of the natives, surrounded by hypnotized apologists and devotees.

A hilarious sequence begins with Sparrow tied to a log by natives as a sacrifice to their gods. He is done up like a kebab, with fruits and vegetables skewered at both ends, roasting gently over a fire, shouting for help. 

In another great scene, he is trapped inside a giant, runaway millwheel, upon which Bloom is engaged in a serious swordfight. Genius!

The film is directed straight at the pre-teen audience that would get off on the gross-out factor and all ages will want to see Depp.

Box office potential is unlimited.

The third outing, reportedly provisionally called 'At World's End', is due in theatres next year.

Opens wide July 7th MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images