Yo ho, Yo ho, A Pirate's Life for Me...

Run, stagger, sail, swim or just walk along the bottom of the ocean and go see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

What a flick! Spoilers ahead, so avast, matey!






My favorite parts:

1) The little nods they put in as homage to the Disneyland/Walt Disney World ride, such as the jailed pirates coaxing the dog with the key in his mouth, the grogging/reveling/rumming/wenching by the pirates in the seaside village, the treasure-strewn pirate cave, and several other touches that are obvious if you're a fan of the ride.

2) One of the biggest worries I had was that they would not use the "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me" song in the movie, but they did - in fact, the little girl singing it at the beginning are the first words of the film. True, I would've liked to heard a full-blown version (Jack Sparrow, the pirate captain, did promise to teach the song to his crew after all), but alas - unless it played late into the end credits, they didn't sing.

3) Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow - a half-drunk, half-effeminate (never could figure out which half) pirate captain that looked like he was channeling Tim Curry and Steve Tyler of Aerosmith.

4) The pirate ship and the British Navy ship pass alongside about 20 feet apart, firing broadside agin' their timbers and blast each other to smithereens.

5) The plucky heroine looks like Brooke Shields, and wields a mean...um, whatever that big piece of wood she wielded at the end.

6) The music...I've already ordered the soundtrack from Amazon ;)

7) Someone actually used the term "Davy Jone's Locker". I half expected ex-Monkee Davy Jones to make a cameo appearance...

It had a lot of silly parts in it - two of the bad guy pirates and two of the British soldiers are there for comic relief, which is unusual to have two pairs of Timon/Pumba type characters in a movie, but it worked. There was almost too much slapstick humor contrasting with the violent swordplay and sea battles, but it was all tongue-in-cheek.

So go see it, and be prepared to enjoy 2-1/2 hours at the movies.

They're really bad eggs, too ;)