Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Reviews
Here -- in a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced high-seas adventure that incorporates roaring cannons, oddball comedy, a love story and more than a touch of the supernatural -- Depp unleashes his theatrical bravado. He's hilarious.
Time Out
Top CriticDepp invests this overfed, action-tractioned swashbuckler with a voluptuous wit and spry spontaneity it surely doesn't deserve.
Buries its treasures -- mainly Johnny Depp in eye shadow and dreads as Captain Jack Sparrow -- in briny clichés.
| Original Score: 2/4
Pirates reminds me of a vintage MGM musical, a movie that is more choreographed than directed, and one that serves up good clean fun of the PG-13 variety.
At, say, 85 minutes, this would have been a jolly little swashbuckler, but at 143 it turns into an unholy trial.
An awkward pirate epic that's jampacked with energy, ambition and spectacular effects.
Pirates steams ahead on a mirthless course of script beats and busy action sequences, coldly steered by director Gore Verbinski to the boom-blast-blare coordinates of producing commodore Jerry Bruckheimer.
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| Original Score: C
Isn't so much a pirate movie as it is the idea of a pirate movie.
Certainly, Pirates has its moments. But it's definitely no 'E' ticket.
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| Original Score: 3/5
An overstated, unashamedly silly summer adventure.
| Original Score: C+
[Johnny] Depp is the single best reason to see Pirates of the Caribbean if you're past the age of 10.
Pirates will enthrall kids and amuse adults. Its only failing is that at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it's about 20 minutes too long.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
There is much by way of noise, computer-generated action, big sets and breezy laughs, and practically nothing to intrude on your thought processes afterwards.
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| Original Score: 2/5
Who knew Johnny Depp was a theme park all by himself?
| Original Score: 3/4
Pirates of the Caribbean is a movie that you ride around in circles for 2 hours and 23 minutes, until at last it brings you back where you began, exhausted and a lot dizzier.
| Original Score: 2/4
A monotonous, repetitive spectacle of endless shipboard sword fights and pirate ghosts in the moonlight.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Just imagine spending two hours-plus on a Pirates of the Caribbean ride and you'll get some idea of the approximate sensations that this movie creates.
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| Original Score: 3/4
An improbably entertaining, if overlong, adventure that brings new meaning to the term 'summer camp.'
| Original Score: 3/4
A theme park ride has been successfully transferred to the screen.
| Original Score: 4/5
Pirates of the Caribbean tends to overstay its welcome.
| Original Score: 2/4
While the plot and action are all deliberately familiar, director Gore Verbinski steers a continual course for sheer, mindless, rope-swinging, crow's-nest-hollering summer fun.
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| Original Score: 3/4
The summer's oddest, most unexpected blockbuster has arrived.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Forget the film and check out [Depp], because there's a superlative to be witnessed here: This has gotta rank among the weirdest performances in the zany annals of the silver screen.
A movie that charms the audience and then outstays its welcome.
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| Original Score: 3/4
The movie is better than it deserves to be, given its origins: a ride at Disneyland and Disney World.
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| Original Score: 3/5
As forgettable as a bad day in the Disneyland parking lot.
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| Original Score: 2/5
The most entertaining amusement of a summer divided between spectacles that force you to exercise your brain and spectacles that seem to suck the brain right out of your head.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Pirates of the Caribbean may have taken its nutso inspiration from a theme-park ride. But it has become, without a doubt, its own wild ride.
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| Original Score: 3/4
If you're weary of summer movies that play like extended MTV videos, you'll luxuriate in Mr. Verbinski's purely cinematic technique.
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| Original Score: B+
The picture's constant forward movement and breezy sense of amusement about itself provide a certain mild sort of diversion.
Pirates of the Caribbean has a smart script, an attractive cast, some very creative violence and romance to boot.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Swashbuckling adventures are few and far between these days, so it's a pleasant surprise to see one that is competently made.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Bristling with brash leaps and thrilling spills, Pirates is a stunt fan's heaven.
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| Original Score: B
One of the few must-see films of this summer.
Pirates of the Caribbean is fun -- but only as long as you don't expect much.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
A consistently rousing, funny and thoroughly entertaining summer action movie.
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| Original Score: B+
This is one time when a cartoon approach in live action is exactly right: The movie's flamboyant personalities and tongue-in-cheek action push the envelope of high camp without ever succumbing to sheer silliness.
The picture moves so swiftly in its first hour that one wonders if the energy can be sustained. But the crew has more surprises in store.
