Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Johhny Depp gave another great performance as his iconic character Captain Jack Sparrow.

The movie opens with Johnny executing a complicated, and quite clever plot to save his faithful first mate, Gibbs from the gallows. When the plan backfires in the last moment, the real adventure begins.

Sparrow ends up being conscripted by none other than Captain Barbossa who has become a Privateer in the King's Navy, but all is not as it seems. Sparrow also hears, from several sources that he's been putting together a crew in London, problem is, that's the first he's heard about it.

Eventually, Jack crosses paths with an old lover, Angelica,  played by Penelope Cruz, who is also the daughter of the legendary and terrible Blackbeard, wonderfully played by Ian McShane. Or is she?

In order to access the powers of the Fountain of Youth, there is a special ritual which must be performed, involving two chalices belonging to Ponce deLeon, the original explorer that went in search of the Fountain of Youth, and a tear from a Mermaid.

Along with all this, there are not two, but three different parties racing to get all the components for the ritual and get to the fountain first.

For me, the absence of Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom mattered not at all.The story line was just as strong, the adventures of trying to get everything they needed for the fountain caused more than enough mayhem, and Johnny Depp was great, yet again.

Look out for cameos from Judi Dench and Keith Richards. Also, for those of you who were at the theatre last night and left before the end of credits......................well, this is The Spoiler Free Movie Review, so I can't tell you what happens, but you're gonna want to find out!

Oh, and one last thing, as far as seeing this movie in 3D, I'm gonna say take it or leave it. I don't think it was worth my extra cash. It seems like only a few scenes were filmed in 3D, and I felt like the scenes for the productions companies had more interesting 3D animation than most of the 3D scenes in the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Coming May 20

Director - Rob Marshall

Main Characters
Jack Sparrow - Johnny Depp
Angelica - Penélope Cruz
Barbossa - Geoffry Rush
Blackbeard - Ian McShane

I'm really looking forward to this fourth installment of the Pirates franchise. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, we catch up with Jack (Johnny Depp) in search of the fabled Fountain Of Youth. Oh Jack, does your ambition have no limits?

There has been some speculation as to how successful this movie will be, since Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom will not appear this time. Here's how I see it. Bono IS U2, Phil Colins WAS Genesis and Sting WAS  The Police. Jack Sparrow IS Pirates of the Caribbean. As far as I'm concerned, as long as Jack Sparrow can find some new mayhem, you've got yourself a movie.

Rejoining the cast of this installment of Pirates of the Caribbean are Geoffry Rush as Captain Barbossa and Keith Richards as Captain Teague, also incidentally Jack's father.

Joining the cast are Ian McShane and Penélope Cruz, playing Blackbeard and his daughter Angelica, Jack's competition in the race to find the fountain of youth. Oh, and did we mention that Angelica is also an old flame of Jack's? That should make for some witty banter, don't you think?

My most recent exposure to Ian McShane was in the made-for-TV mini-series The Pillars of the Earth where he played the ambitious and devious Bishop Waleran. Besides having the perfect dark looks to play a character like Blackbeard, seeing his performance as the Bishop leaves me with little doubt that his performance will more than live up to the legendary tales of the fearsome Blackbeard.

Penélope Cruz as daughter to Blackbeard and maybe, maybe not love interest to Jack seems like a pretty safe choice. I think its going to be pretty hard to go wrong there.

Rob Marshall is the director of On Stranger Tides. As director of such titles as Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago and Nine, for me its seems like a bit of a departure from his previous work, however that in no way causes me any concern as to whether this movie will be a huge blockbuster. That's because there is another name attached to this movie, as he has been to the previous three Pirates movies. Someone who I consider to be the King Midas of show business. I've yet to see a movie or TV show that had Jerry Bruckheimer's golden touch that I didn't thoroughly enjoy and wasn't more than comfortably successful. Even if I'm not sold on the story line, if I learn that Bruckheimer is involved, my mind is pretty much changed.