Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

By EWAN McDONALD


(Herald rating: * * * * *)

"This is either madness or brilliance," says a pirate to his captain as they try to steal a ship and rescue the governor's beautiful daughter. "It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide," replies the captain.

Well, I'm going to nail my colours to the mast: this movie based on an adventure ride at Disney World is brilliant. Especially with all the bonuses that come on the two-disc DVD. Of course, the whole flick is quite mad, too.

The yarn involves two pirate captains, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Sparrow hates Barbossa because he led a mutiny on Sparrow's ship, the Black Pearl, dumping the good pirate on a desert island.

Barbossa didn't get away scot-free, however. He and his crew hooked into the ancient Curse of the Black Pearl that turned them into the Undead. By day they look like normal pirates; when the moon comes up they turn into walking skeletons but, because they're already dead, they cannot be killed.

We take up the action in Port Royal, a British possession in the Caribbean, governed by Weatherby Swann. His daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, Bend It Like Beckham), is expected to marry the dashing and boring Commander Norrington (Jack Davenport).

However, she really loves a young swordmaker, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom — yep, that one). She has been besotted since they were children and she saw him drifting on a raft with a golden (no, not a ring) medallion around his neck.

Bingo! This holds the key to the curse. Bingo Two! It is widely believed that Elizabeth's blood may ... Bingo Three! Young Turner's real father is ... oh, come on. If you didn't see the movie, you don't think I'm going to spoil it for you and the kids, do you?

It's a great swashbuckler, and what makes it great entertainment is the brilliant, eccentric, over the top and way down the other side performance from Depp, helped enormously by a witty, colourful script from those crack-ups who brought us Shrek and The Mask Of Zorro.

DVD features: movie (143min); commentaries with director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp; with Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport and Jerry Bruckheimer; with scriptwriters; DVD Rom: script scanner and storyboard viewer; An Epic At Sea documentary; behind-the-scenes feature; video diaries: Producer's Photo Diary, Diary Of A Pirate, Diary Of A Ship; virtual tour of pirate history and folklore; 19 deleted and extended scenes: effects breakdown; archive footage of the Disney attraction; blooper reel; DVD Rom: image gallery slide show, history of Disney attraction, effects studio, virtual reality viewer, weblinks.