Of ghosts and pirates. Review on Pirates of the Caribbean Movie

''Yo ho ho

Pass me that rum

Ahoy me hearties...''

Reminds you of those wonderful mythical figures.. Yes the pirates. A little info about the movie first:

Director: Gore Verbinski.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley,Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce.

Time: 133 mins

Now then! Pirates of the Caribbean or to be more precise

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Give you 3 attempts to guess what the ''Black Pearl'' is.

No you are wrong, it's the name of the pirate ship. As the full length

title suggests producer Jerry Bruckheimer is gonna torture us with a few more

of these. I wonder what's next -- The dance of the blue panther.

Thankfully Pirates of the Caribbean is not as outrageous as the title sounds. Compliments to Verbinski (previous ventures ''The Ring'' ''The Mexican'' ) and Bruckheimer for making a swashbuckling saga which gives the old pirate filmmaking adventure thrillers a new meaning.

Brief story

I won't go in detail about the story. I'm sure you'll find posts in this category on MS with narrations of this movie as long as the Verbinski's script itself.

To keep it short, in the town of Port Royal (somewhere in the Caribbean) Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom of the ''Lord of the Rings'' fame) team up to rescue the governer's lovely daughter Elizabeth (Keira Kinghtely) who has been kidnapped by the pirates. Don't assume anything about the name ''Capt. Jack Sparrow'' He is in fact an old time pirate himself. In fact the leader of the pirates is Jack's arch rival and enemy Capt. Barbossa (Geoffery Rush of the ''Elizabeth'' and ''the Quills''-Marquis de Sade fame) who previously stole his ship ''The Black Pearl'' which is supposedly the fastest ship in the Caribbean. Will is ape about Elizabeth although she unwillingly has gotten engaged to Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport).

But it seems that two guys against a ship full of pirates was not enough. You apparently can't kill the goons because they are under a curse, which dooms them to live forever and turns them into walking skeletons in the moonlight. Then it gets even more complicated. The only way to break the curse is to retrieve a lost gold medallion and the blood of Will Turner although the pirates originally thought Elizabeth.

Ok I won't spoil it for you anymore. The action sequences are well choreographed.

Special effects are not bad either.

A bit about the actors.

Geoffrey Rush is good in his role as the main tormentor. He has to work within the boundaries of his character and I thought he did well. Orlando Bloom is not bad although I must admit he looks better with longer ears. The rest of the cast is ok too.

But the character which holds the movie together and I must say is the highlight of the movie is undoubtedly Johnny Depp. He has played the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, or what he once called it in an interview ''the drunk Keith Richards'' of the Rolling Stones, with true conviction. Excellent performance.

I've always had something against heartthrobs, the Tom Cruises the Brad Pitts and so forth. I never rated them much as actors. (Or maybe it's because of the fact that they get too much female attention. Call me envious. It's all you need when your girlfriend talks for hours about Brad Pitt and feels sleepy when you have an interesting story to tell. )

So you can understand that I used to assess Johnny Depp's abilities with skepticism. But he proved me wrong. I was first impressed with him when I saw his performance in the ''Ninth Gate''. His performance in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is one of his best ever.

As much it hurts when I say this -- the guy's cool. Can't help it. Throughout the movie you keep waiting for him to appear and wondering what he would do next. He also makes a perfect entry when he reaches the shore on a drowning plank, which I thought was one of the best shots in the movie.

Cons

The movie is a bit long (2 and half hours). I guess the director could have finished it in 2 but lets not make an issue out of it. And then there's the usual questions you'll ask yourself after the movie such as ''Why O Why didn't Barbossa just kill Jack so many times? Why does he always leave him on some abandoned island so that he makes his way back?'' But hey... sometimes its better not to think about such things. You are mature enough to know. '' Abe agar hero mar gaya to film ka kya hoga ? '' Whats gonna happen to the story without the hero (the lead character)

Having said that Jack is not exactly the ''hero'' but the story mostly revolves around him.

At last I would say this. I won't give ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' more than 3 stars but I would definitely recommend it. Its one of those movies you would forget about in a couple of months but its good entertainment. The movie is already a hit in a few countries and one can understand why.

Plus out all the Hollywood flicks in cinemas right now, this is probably the best.

Ciao