Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: +2 1/2

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley. Action/adventure. Written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, Directed by Gore Verbinski.

FILM SYNOPSIS: The further misadventures of Captain Jack Sparrow concern our intoxicated pirate trying to outsmart the legendary Davy Jones, who has morphed into a kind of squid-like devil god of the sea. Jack traded his soul to the ghostly Davy Jones in order to captain a ship. Now the evil and slimy Davy, and a crew of fish-like ghouls, has shown up to collect. To escape his watery fate, Captain Jack promises to find a hidden treasure. Jacks plans further complicate the lives of the good Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and the beautiful (and I do mean beautiful) Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley).

PREVIEW REVIEW In 2003, my first reaction to the mascara-wearing, swishy Captain Jack was that he was a bit foppish, a bizarre acting choice. Then we learned that the character was marooned for several years by a traitorous first mate and left with nothing to nourish the body and soul but a buried reserve of Jamaican rum. So he may be in a perpetual state of intoxication. Either way, Depp unapologetically played his swishing seafarer as if he were a cross between Dudley Moores inebriated Arthur and Englands Dame Edna. Here there is no explanation for his behavior. In fact, explanations just seem to take up time, and as the film is already two hours and thirty minutes, were grateful for any shortcut to the end credits.

Whereas the first installment was full of swashbuckling derring-do and not overly campish, chapter two in the life of Captain Jack goes overboard with its cursed crew damned to an eternity of servitude. In the previous adventure, the crew was a shipload of yo ho ho pirates by day/marauding skeletons at night. This was an interesting twist, spooky and thrilling. But the newest cast of barnacle-encrusted ocean bandits is more silly than scary. Oh, there will be Oscar nominations for makeup, special effects, art and set direction, but about midway through the endless action, one begins to think, enough already.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Buena Vista