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If you happened to contribute your dollars to the slightly under $10 million amassed by 1995's 'Cutthroat Island', you don't have to wonder what went wrong with that movie. What went wrong, that is, that turned that movie into the biggest money loser of all time (It has since been surpassed, and resides at number five on the list). The swashbuckling, pirate adventure, once a mainstay of Hollywood, was reduced to a joke, and the near ten-year drought that has followed shows the curse bestowed on the genre. But, it seemed like a good idea at the time. People (historically) love a good pirate story, and there were recognizable names involved. There were great sets, gorgeous ships, and something over $90 million thrown at the thing. The problem was it was just no damn fun at all. ***

With 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl', Disney takes its first stab at movies named after its own rides (Eddie Murphy in 'The Haunted Mansion' coming soon), but more importantly, it takes a stab at lifting the curse on pirate films. It succeeds. ***

Our story (which is slightly too convoluted for its own good) opens with a British ship happening upon the wreckage of another. The captain of our ship, Norrington (Jack Davenport), is transporting Governor Swann (Jonathan Pryce - 'What a Girl Wants') and his daughter to Port Royal when we come upon the wreckage and find a boy floating in the debris. The boy has a medallion which (to the girl at any rate) marks him as a pirate, so she takes it. An uninspired, but serviceable introduction. ***

We leap ahead a number of years, and find that the boy, Will Turner, has grown into Orlando Bloom ('Black Hawk Down', The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and the girl, Elizabeth Swann , has grown into Keira Knightley ('Bend It Like Beckham', 'Star Wars: Episode 1'). Will is now a swordsmith, and Elizabeth is firmly established in her mansion as 'The Governor's Daughter'. ***

We begin. ***

Gallantly surveying the horizon from the crow's nest of his... dinghy, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) sails into our film, wind and spray in his face, jovial 'bad guy who's good' spirit in his heart. Meanwhile, we visit young Elizabeth as her father attempts to nudge her toward marrying Norrington, who is being made a Commodore, but we are made aware that she has feelings for Will. Yes, it's that story. ***

After a few scenes allowing Captain Jack to display his 'escapade' ability (and get caught), we discover that his arrival at Port Royal is very fortuitous. A few short hours after he's finally put behind bars, the legendary Black Pearl arrives, drawn by the medallion to Elizabeth. Invoking the right to parley, Elizabeth is taken aboard the pirate vessel, and meets Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush - 'Les Miserables', 'Shakespeare in Love'). The Black Pearl sails off with Elizabeth, and Will and Captain Jack must join forces in order to go after her. ***

The plot twists and turns, never straying too far from the eventual goal of giving the undead, cursed pirates aboard the Black Pearl their comeuppance, but getting dangerously close at times. There is plenty of old-fashioned, swashbuckling action, but some of the scenes go on a bit too long, and that's precisely where the movie itself has its main difficulty. A good sword-fight scene can be ruined if the advantage flip-flops too many times. 'Building tension' soon becomes 'being silly'. 'Pirates' doesn''t go too far, but that is certainly its weakness. It tries to do too much, and in so doing, does a little less. ***

It is still anything but a wasted effort, however. It is, perhaps, merely a Verbinski effort. Gore Verbinski, though not long on the scene, has already established himself as a 'safe' director. The kind of director who can make something as good as it seems on paper (but no better), with minimal risk that he'll make a complete mess of it. 'Pirates' is a pretty good movie, and I'm willing to bet that it looks pretty good on paper, but it is lacking a certain something which would put it over the edge and into the category of something that could really grab you. My guess is that what it's missing is the touch of a director willing to take a chance and do something that could go wrong, but also could be great. ***

Depp, Bloom, and especially Rush are the stars of the show, and they are responsible for the fun and enjoyment to be found here. Depp builds a character uniquely his own despite the fact that he plays a cinema staple (the pirate who is not such a bad guy after all, despite swimming in a sea of pirates who are just as bad as everyone thinks). Bloom is almost too good at times, acting at a level somehow strikingly above, and removed from, the genre. I suppose that's actually bad acting in a sense, but it's hard to call it that. Rush, had the movie achieved the 'long-lasting great' status of its potential, might have become one of the all-time villians. **

A good deal of credit must also go to two, somewhat surprising, supporting characters. Lifted from BBC comedies, Jack Davenport and Mackenzie Crook deliver performances that are most welcome, especially considering the alternative directions we might have gone. Davenport (of the BBC's 'Coupling') manages to bring out a Norrington that, despite the script naming him 'cardboard, stuffy, British Captain caricature', can actually engage the audience to some degree. Crook (on BBC's 'The Office' as Gareth Keenan), half of yet another Bert and Ernie, gag, sub-plot (or should I say 'routine') puts a lively spin on what might have become very old, very quickly. He also shows us how you can pull off a 'chase your eye as it rolls away from you' gag, and I don't think it was a very veiled poke at 'Minority Report'. *

I had to smile at 'Pirates', or more precisely, at the curse within the film. The curse has lasted ten years, and all you have to do to free yourself from it is give back the gold, and give up some of your blood. You just have to smile at that. So, is the curse lifted? Well, no one in the film says that lifting the curse makes you great. It just lifts the curse. 'Pirates' isn't a great movie, though it could have been, but it's full of fun, and for a fairly light, 'Summer' movie, this is about as good as it gets. There are definitely some things missing, and overall it feels too long. Maybe it even tried a little too hard with its story. But, I think we're safe to have another pirate movie in less than ten years. ***

Though I may sound generally negative toward the movie, it's only a form of sour grapes. I had hopes, and the movie didn't quite live up to them. But, I was looking for great, and only got quite good. There is a lot of fun, solid characters, great visuals, and even fight-scene banter that harkens back to the days of the great swashbucklers when 'fight-scene banter' wasn't, by definition, a negative. ***

'Pirates' may be lacking in some areas, but it is enjoyable enough that it's quite easy to forgive. It's slick action without insulting your intelligence, and a workable story that doesn't bog down. The movie, in fact, may well be compared to its namesake. A ride which, despite being decades old, somehow uninteresting looked at objectively, and surrounded by countless 'cooler' choices, is nevertheless unendingly popular.

The DVD looks amazing, and the 2.35:1 aspect is an absolute necessity. Seeing this movie in full frame would be to miss more than half of it. Say what you will about Verbinski, he's pretty adept at framing shots, and using backgrounds. The colors are rich and beautiful, and there are no flaws whatsoever. Darks and shadows are without problems, though most of them are created at least partially with CGI, so there shouldn't be. Excellent skin tones, full pallette, everything you could hope for. ***

The sound is quite a treat as well, and if you have the ability to really get something out of DTS do so. The sound design for the film is phenomenal, with a great mix of channel use and a real aim toward creating great surround effects. This is a movie heavy on action, and the sound is really used. Some truly great moments for sound can be found during the swordfights. The dialogue comes through very clear, and even properly clear. That is, it is a bit more difficult to hear people if they are in the middle of explosions and fighting. -

The extra features on this 2-disc set are simply amazing. A very well-rounded selection, and all of it very high caliber. ***

'An Epic at Sea: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean' is an approximately 40-minute 'Behind the Scenes' documentary. There's a great mixture of elements to this production, and it is pretty easily one of the best 'making of' features I've seen. The feature can also be viewed in segments, which are: Intro, Actors, Locations, Production Design, The Ships, Costumes and Make-Up, Stunts and Swords, Visual Effects, and The Premiere. You can see right there that this covers a lot of ground. This is really a nice look at the movie, and by the time it's over you have to like the film a little bit more. It really gives a good feel for the true scope of the production. ***

'Fly on the Set' is a 20-minute featurette which takes certain scenes and delivers something of a super 'Behind the Scenes' close up. These can also be viewed in sections according to the specific scenes, which are: Town Attack, Tortuga, Blacksmith Shop, The Cave, and Jack's Hanging. These features show very detailed accounts of how the scenes are staged, and what goes into the making of them. We get to see more than the average 'Behind the Scenes' feature, and get a very clear idea of how what gets filmed is actually turned into what we see. ***

There are three 'diaries' grouped together on the bonus disc, but they are very different features. The producer's photo diary is basically a still gallery of shots taken by Jerry Bruckheimer during filming. This runs four minutes, and more or less just a chance for Bruckheimer to talk up the film. 'Diary of a Pirate' is a video journal by Lee Arenberg. Disney apparently invited him to keep a journal of his experience, and we get about ten minutes of footage. This is actually quite interesting, though often a bit strange. This is sort of another level removed from 'Behind the Scenes', as we see a day in the life of an actor. 'Diary of a Ship' is another ten minutes or so that shows us the Lady Washington, the ship which is used in the film as The Interceptor. We get some history of the ship, and watch its transformation and journey to the filming location. ***

'Below Deck' is an interactive history of pirates. Maritime Historian David Cordingly is on board for 24 different short bits on various aspects of the lives of real life pirates. You can view these spots through the interactive choices, choose them directly from a list, or play them all consecutively. We see such spots as: Daily Life, Superstitions, Types of Pirates, Pirate Ships, and many spots on specific pirates. This is quite an interesting feature to include, and provides a lot of information in a short time. ***

The disc also includes a blooper reel which runs for about three minutes. Standard fare here, though some of it is quite amusing. You expect a bit more time for the movie though. ***

The disc also features 18 deleted scenes. Most of these are actually extended scenes, and many of them are not extended by much. For the negligible amount of time saved, I'd have liked to have seen most of these included in their full form, which might have made the movie about two minutes longer. ***

'Moonlight Serenade' is a scene progression style feature and runs about seven minutes. Here we get to see how this scene was put together with a layering of shots and the use of CGI. We see the idea from storyboard to final product, and for a fairly short feature, we get a real feel for the work that goes into the job. ***

We also have an image gallery which delivers pictures in a slideshow. There are hundreds of images, which are broken down into categories. You can see concept art, storyboards, costumes, and many others. ***

'Pirates in the Parks' gives us an 18-minute excerpt from a television Disney production which showed the planning stages of the ride, and takes us on a trip through the ride the day it opened in the early 60s. This is really a treat for any fan of Disney. This is footage that no one would ever see again otherwise, and it's wonderful to see Walt himself talking about how the ride is going to look, and going over sketches and models. ***

The bonus disc also has several features for DVD-ROM. The script scanner and storyboard viewer are pretty self-explanatory. There is also a history of the ride feature, a virtual reality trip on the ride, an image gallery of the ride, and 'Moonlight Becomes Ye' which is an effects program that lets you take your own digital pictures and turn them into skeletons as per the movie.

There are three commentary tracks on the disc, and all three of them are worth a listen. The first is with director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp. Depp is worth the time by himself, and he's the sort of actor who should have a commentary clause written into all his future contracts. There are definitely some spots where the two of them are thinking that this is perhaps too long a movie to fill with commentary, but for the most part this is a great feature. They mainly stick to the reminiscence style of commentary, but they mix things up nicely and deliver a good amount of entertainment as well. ***

The second track is Jack Davenport and Keira Knightley. A somewhat odd pairing really, but they deliver a nice track as well, and have some fun with it. They are obviously not in the best position to deliver the sort of account we usually expect from commentary tracks, but they have a lot of insights on their experience, and they bounce well off each other, and keep you listening. ***

The final commentary track is by the writers of the film, and though this track has its highs and lows, its pretty solid overall. Anyone who is really a fan of the film will greatly enjoy this track, as they do go into some detail about the writing process and some of the challenges. Occasionally they do reveal themselves as somewhat overly fond of the final product, and things slow down here and there, but it's not enough to disappoint.