Johnny Depp has said he will act in as many 'Pirates' movies as they care to make! I love him. My daughter, 29, used to have posters of him all around her room as a teenager. He was in 21 Jump Street at the time. I'm waiting for school holidays to end so I can go to the Cinemas and see this movie.
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's ChestSandra Hall, Reviewer
July 6, 2006
A blockbuster worth watching for the flair with which the cast plunge into the action.
GenreAction, Adventure
Run Time150 minutes
RatedPG
CountryUnited States
DirectorGore Verbinski
ActorsJohnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport, Kevin R. McNally, Jonathan Pryce
LURKING under several million dollars' worth of digital effects in Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean sequel is a sadly missed opportunity.
I'm talking about the film's arch villain, the spectral buccaneer Davy Jones - captain of the ghost ship the Flying Dutchman and Ruler of the Ocean Depths.
Condemned to a waterlogged form of eternal damnation, Captain Jones has been partly transformed into an octopus. His washed-out countenance is encircled by waving arms, and a pulsing membrane has colonised the back of his neck.
It wasn't until the credits rolled that I realised that somewhere within this convincing computer-generated cephalopod was the British comic actor Bill Nighy.
Fans of Nighy's jaded old rock'n'roller from Love Actually will understand how cheated I felt. Special effects buffs won't - which is fine. But they should know what they're missing in having his face hidden.
If ever an actor was equipped to convey the infinite world-weariness you'd expect to find in a member of the undead, he's the one. And worse, we lose the chance of watching his brand of high camp shape up to the equally elevated variety displayed by Johnny Depp's celebrated antihero, Captain Jack Sparrow.
Sparrow, too, is a mistake. The name, I mean. If we're going to stick with the bird analogy, Depp's creation is something between peacock and bowerbird. He has acknowledged Keith Richards as his chief inspiration. Captain Jack's addled grace, his tipsy eye-rolling, his beads, rings, plaitings and piercings are all borrowed from Richards. But the mincing walk is pure drag queen, and the foppishness is less Richards than Jagger. The sense of fun, however, is Depp's own work, and it's still keeping the series afloat.
Despite Nighy's effacement, Pirates is one of the most human of blockbusters, and its crew of supporting players, with their blistered skin, mossy teeth and uncertain command of dry land, are still worth watching for the flair with which they plunge into the action.
The least of the film's attractions - or worries - is the plot. Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman are loosely cobbled together. We also get a spectacular add-on in the form of the kraken, the giant squid of 12th-century Norwegian mythology, which is recruited to play the part of Captain Jones's pet, popping up regularly to embrace a ship and sweep it to the ocean floor.
For Sparrow's ship, the Black Pearl, things are tough. And that's not all. It's also being pursued by the East India Trading Company, depicted as a greedy multinational out to rid the seas of happy-go-lucky freelancers like Jack so it can go on committing its 18th-century version of white-collar crime without interference.
A sneering Tom Hollander is the company officer, and caught in his machinations are the heroic lovers, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Blandness, however, is a far more serious threat to these two. They're still pretty and pretty dull - even though she gets to handle a sword and he's awarded his own subplot.
His estranged father - played by a barnacle-encrusted Stellan Skarsgard - turns up among the Flying Dutchman's crew of lost souls and Will, ever ambitious, decides he's going to liberate him from the undead world.
The computer-generated stuff has a seductively moody sense of solidity. Verbinski ( The Ring, The Mexican) has always had a talent for putting life's shady side on screen, and the Flying Dutchman, with its sinister overlay of seaweed and heavy mildew, is a magnificently gloomy creation. So, too, are the mouldy mermen who make up its crew. And the stunts have the wicked ingenuity of the most exuberant slapstick, with much sword-waving but next to no connection between cold steel and warm flesh.
It's not so much of a tale of derring-do as derring-don't-want-to - especially when it comes to Jack, who is always eager to avoid a fight. This is probably because the effort of remaining upright under the influence of whatever he's just imbibed takes all the physical co-ordination he can muster.
The film's main flaw is its running time. At 21/2 hours it's straining the friendship. And no doubt the next sequel, which has been in part-production alongside this one, will be along soon, packed with yet more computerised miracles.
Rumours that Keith Richards is to appear in the role of Captain Jack's father have been confirmed, so it's to be hoped he doesn't get the Nighy treatment, too.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/fil.....ullpage#contentSwap1Keith Richards may star in Pirates film
Wednesday Jul 5 06:13 AESTRolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards looks set to play Johnny Depp's father in the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, a fitting role for the man upon whom the American actor based his character Jack Sparrow.
"We're all looking forward to the idea of Keith coming in and doing a cameo and it's looking very, very good," Depp told reporters on Tuesday, the day after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dean Man's Chest, the second film in the franchise, had its London premiere.
"The one thing is you just never say it's definite until, for me, the guy steps on the set and the cameras are rolling, but it's certainly something I'd be excited about," the 43-year-old added.
Depp won his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Captain Jack in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first in the lucrative Walt Disney Co series that earned $US654 million ($A882.17 million) in worldwide box office receipts.
The movie database IMDb lists Richards in the cast of the third Pirates film due to be released in 2007, although the rocker's London publicist could not be reached for comment.
Richards, 62, is currently preparing to resume touring having suffered a head injury after reportedly falling from a palm tree while on holiday in Fiji.
Orlando Bloom, who stars alongside Depp in the film, referred to the incident on Tuesday, saying he would love to see Richards play the role, before adding: "Well, if he doesn't kill himself falling out of a coconut tree."
©AAP 2006http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=111155
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