• Food and Travel
• Issue 1

Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer are back in town with, pockets wide open, to cash in on the latest sequel to their hugely popular franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean, while many critics are still racking their brains to see how in the world it became the highest-earning film of last year in the first place.  

As has become the custom with any sequel to big blockbusters, the producers have decided that the only way to attract the people is to come up with more of everything: more action, more special effects, more colorful characters, more duels, and more pirate stuff, all apparently at the service of the biggest climax in the history of cinema.  

But the result is a confusing mixture of paper-thin characters and ridiculous jokes in a story packed with so many agreements and disagreements, pacts and contracts that you come to the conclusion that it’s better not to worry about anything and just watch the beautiful cinematography and listen to the moving musical score. And all this weighs on the shoulders of Johnny Depp as the cunning Jack Sparrow who is brought back from the world of the dead to cheer up the audience.  

Walt Disney hasn’t changed a bit in the last 25 years and indeed since it was founded by the greatest animator in the world. I was reminded of the Disney films I saw when I was a kid, films filled with any species of animals and people whose sole function seems to be conveying a simplistic message on “freedom”. To do this, the Pirates, heavily draws on films like Being John Malkovich, Return of the Jedi, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Add to this the fact that the film is seriously flawed; after all we’re talking about pirates who used to loot, pillage, and kill with a vengeance!  

It is only suitable for 12-year-old boys who will marvel at the action sequences and Orlando Bloom’s character who proposes to Keira Knightley in the middle of a very bloody war on the docks of a ship. And guess what! They marry in the middle of that same bloody war!    

Even though Steve Rose of The Guardian believes that “if ever there were a critic-proof movie, this is surely it”, and our weapons are useless against it, I still hope that the negative opinions of movie critics all around the world come to something and make this a huge flop in the box-office.  

The only reward you get from watching this monstrous movie is a peek, albeit short, at Keira Knightley’s beautiful legs at the penultimate sequence, though I don’t think this can be enough consolation. Oh, one more thing: if you manage to bear with it and stay to the end, wait till the end titles are over. There is another less-than-a-minute sequence after the titles about a certain child who apparently is going to grow up and be burdened with the weight of the 4th installment to this franchise in 2008!  

Director: Gore Verbinsky; Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce; 168/2007; Rated 12A  


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