Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

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)

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. (07/08/2006)

The most treacherous part of the trilogy, and not just in terms of the behavior of the characters. Perhaps it would be appropriate to say that the second part deserved to be cut and combined with the third into one movie, but that probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Even I have caught myself wanting to watch Pirates all the time, and while that doesn't mean that Dead Man's Chest is flawless. It is really overloaded, some plotlines are pointless (the 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 performance by the Kraken, is a true adrenaline delight. (30/05/2007)

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)

I found the sequel to the highly successful Pirates of the Caribbean to be on the same level as the first one - Jack Sparrow is still as crazy and funny, Liz Swan is still the same “fragile damnsel” ... and now the irresistible Davey Jones, whose appearance inspires fear and respect, has been added. There were plenty of funny scenes that didn't really make me laugh, but still entertained. The visuals of the Kraken and his were good, as was the unmistakable soundtrack. In short, once again, a nice dose of humour with a somewhat excessive running time. (16/10/2010)