Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides - Double Play (Blu-ray)

The critics have always given the Pirates movies a hard time, they even tore into the first (and still the best) movie.
For me parts two and three suffered from being shot back to back and the story was confusing and at times made little sense.
To find the fouth film was a stand alone movie with no ties to parts two and three and ditched the love triangle between Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom could only be a positive thing.
The plot centres around as to what was hinted at the end of part three in the search for the fountain of youth. Again we are joined by the ever excellent Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa the equally as good Ian McShan as Black Beared and at the time pregnant Penelope Cruz , but as alway this is Johnny Depp's film and he again is outstanding as captain Jack Sparrow.
Under the new direction of Rob Marshall the whole film feels fresher. But there is a down side to all this. In th first there was the crew of the damned, second and third we had Davey Jones and his crustation crew, but in this we have zombiefied crew that no way match the other creatures in the series, the film also seems to lack a few action scenes as once they get on the Island where the fountain is, nothing really seems to happen and this could have been to put to good use and is a missed oppatunity to make this chapter stand out from the rest.
The show stoppin scene is the Mermaids, both stunningly beautiful and deadly this does rate as one of the best scenes in the series. In the cinema the 3D was great, but when it arrives on DVD/Blue Ray it may show the faults in the film even further.
For me athough I thought the film was a slight improvment on parts two and three it's still not a patch on The Curse of the Black Pearl.
This is stil top draw family entertainment, and if you loved the original three you should lap this entry up almost as much.
See if you like.
Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse Of The Black pearl.
" " " Dead mans Chest
" " " At Worlds End.
National Treasure 1 & 2.
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Temple Of Doom.
The Last Crusade.
Kindom Of The Crustal Skull.
Harry Potter 1 - 7
Cut Throat Island (Did anyone like it?)

Finally Pirates has sailed back in the right direction! Ignore the 2nd and 3rd film (.....especially the 3rd). This film has brought it right back to how Pirates started and how it should have stayed!

Personally I had pretty much given up on the PotC saga after the wannabe epic mess that was Part 3.
But with the promise of a more straightforward and fun adventure, centred around Jack Sparrow, as opposed to the Kiera and Orlando show, I decided to venture back.
And as it turns out the movie is more fun, and somewhat of a return to form.
The Story is what it is, Action is good, Johnny Depp is nearly back to his Nutty Best, the rest of the cast pitch in well and seem to be having fun.
Film also has a couple of pretty cool Cameos.
Not brilliant by any means, a good watch, but once all is said and done it's a 3 Star movie.

This pirates was dreadful. In my opinion worse than the 3rd one. The storyline was preposterous and there was no point to it. I was expecting more quick witted humour but was disappointed. There was no sideline characters that added to the comedy like the 2 idiot pirates from the first one. You can tell when a film is bad when you look at your watch half way through. In this one i looked at my watch probably 10 times.

the first of the 'pirate' films was allways gonna be a hard act to follow. and in truth has never been matched by the three that have followed, however 'johnny depp's' role as 'captain jack sparrow' remains the focus of the humour that has carried on throughout.
in this film --the race is on to find the legendary 'fountain of youth'
with the ''evil'' mermaids in waiting the film delivers much tongue in cheek action and humour.........it's great family entertainment as allways.