Jul. 13, 2003 - 11:03 am

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

well, to begin with i didn't really have a dying urge to see this, but it sure seemed like everyone else did. i kind of felt like seeing a movie at the theater this weekend anyway and when David and Erin asked me to go i said sure. then i looked it up online and it has a great rating on the IMDb. it's at 8.2 right now which is really great for any opening. so anyway, we went to check it out and everyone enjoyed it. i don't know how you couldn't really.

this movie is made by Disney and is based on their "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Walt Disney World. the ride is basically you floating around in a little boat looking at these anamatronic scenes of pirates doing various things like getting drunk, shooting things, and being trapped in a jail cell trying to lure a dog over that has the keys in his mouth. the movie imitates all of this stuff and throws in a very well thought out story along with it. it's got a lot of action, as much stereotypical pirate stuff as you could possibly want, and a great comedic element mostly brought to life by the awe-inspiring performance of Jonny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Jack Sparrow doesn't even have a ship or crew at the beginning of the film. he's basically an idiot hero. you can't figure out, and neither can other characters, whether he's the best pirate that ever lived or the worst pirate that ever lived. anyway, he rescues a lady in distress, Keira Knightly (more to come on that note later...), and gets thrown into prison when the port authorities realize that he's a pirate. then when a ship called the Black Pearl filled with damned sailors comes and abducts the girl, Orlando Bloom decides to go and rescue the girl he loves and he needs Jack's help.

yeah, so everyone keeps on trying to tell me that Keira Knightly reminds them of Natalie Portman. i just want to say "don't you think i know that already?" i mean how could i possibly not know. does anyone remember a little film called Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)? i mean, Keira Knightly's whole career is freaking based on the fact that she looks like Natalie Portman. you remember in Star Wars that in order to protect herself from assassination Queen Amidala used her handmaidens to take her place in some public appearances. yeah, whenever you saw that girl that wasn't actually Natalie, it was Keira. her character's name was Sab�. so yeah, i knew about that. she's the British Natalie.

but back to Pirates. i really enjoyed the movie. i was thoroughly entertained the entire time. Orlando Bloom is awesome, but he'll never be able to do better than Legolas. that's the best character he will ever play. now this might be the best performance i've seen so far from Johnny Depp. it's questionable. i'd like to see him win an Oscar someday for something like this. unfortunately summer blockbusters don't really get considered for the most part.