The Goonies (1985)

This is one of my favorite all time movies, I have seen it so many times that when re-watching it I am able to quote whole conversations and the jokes still work for me, i will say that there is a level of nostalgia and I think that the music the jokes and the setting just put me back to when I was a child watching this film repeatedly from a VHS we had taped from the TV. I had watched the tape so many times I used to know all of the adverts on the VHS. But back to looking at the film, the best thing about this for me is that it throws you into the middle of a situation, it is easy enough to pick up what is happening and they reference so many things that happened previously that I likened it to being the film at the end of a TV Series which shows that Chris Columbus really was a great writer and Richard Donner is a great director, everything in this film works.

Your main cast is a surprising in that so many of the child actors are well known for other things, Sean Astin in Lord of The Rings, Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men and other things, Corey Feldman for being Corey Feldman and Jonathan Ke Quan as Short Round in Temple of Doom. The fact that so many of them are still around shows they had the chops and it was a dream cast. The baddies, thr Fratellies are played by the late great Anne Ramsey, she still scares me today and i would not cross her and teh fact that her 2 sons hate each other as the vye for her attentions. The set peice is the dream and realm of so many kids fantasies from that era, who did not go looking for treasure when they were younger?

This film is a 5 star masterpeice that I actually think people watching today for the first time will still enjoy, and if you have not seen it, you will see some really common pop culture refrences and where they originated so "Hey you Guys!" Make sure you have seen this film.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3:At World's End (2007)

I watched this film as part of catching up on the series after seeing number 4 at the cinema and I was not looking forward to it as I had watched it before and been unimpressed with it. I wonder if going in with such low expectations helped when watching this as I actually quite liked it, there is a lot going on and it is about 30 minutes too long. The story throughout still follows the love story of Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom and you have Johnny Depp escaping and surviving throughout as Captain Jack Sparrow.

You have Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush back as their characters and you have all of the rest of the cast coming back again. Overall it is not a bad film but it is fairly hard work and the ending is sort of a mixed based on the fact that it is a Disney film.
I think this is 3 stars for me, it is not watchable without having seen parts 1 and 2 and you should only watch this if you have endured the 2nd part. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

So onwards I went and watched part 2 of the Pirates series and this is at least the third time I have seen this film and sometimes on multiple viewings you get more from a film. However I did not get anything from this it is obviously a filler film to get to the third film as there are a couple of stories that do not have a conclusion at all. You have Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly back and have Bill Nighy and Stellan Skarsgard stepping in as Davy Jones and Bootstrap Bill respectively and they are all fine.

It seems to be the story that is a struggle, they have about 3 plots going on from the opening with Captain Jack in a coffin and Will and Elizabeth getting married and then Jack on an Island as a chieftain and none of it really matters, it makes the whole film very long and if you think about the film and the point there are so many thoughts are what is the point questions raised, it is not obvious or needed.

I cannot fault the actors but this is 2 stars, there are some cool scenes and set pieces but overall it is not enough to save this from being a waste of time.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

I loved the first of this series, I suffered the second and the third was absolutely dire so I went to see this with quite low expectations. Johnny Depp is back as captain Jack Sparrow with a couple of the original cast including Geoffrey Rush as Barbosa and Kevin McNally as Smith. You have new characters with Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane, I felt there was a lot of character development that did not seem to go anywhere with them and what happened at the end was actually pretty obvious. But back to my thoughts and my low expectations, I was not overly impressed with it, the idea was very simple but was really hard for them to get to, the fountain of youth get there and become young.

They seemed to want to take for ever getting there and I was actually quite bored with it, there is only so much of Captain Jack going 'savvy' that is entertaining. It was not truly terrible the performances and cameo role are entertaining and some of the action scenes were interesting but there were 4 or 5 other bit players that had quite large parts but not enough time to fully explain who they were or develop them so you really didn't care that much about them, overall it could have done with being trimmed down by about 30 minutes and 3 or 4 of the characters either cut out or slimmed down so you were not left wondering about them.

Overall I am going to say 2 stars, mostly they are for the performances and the production values which as always were excellent but it is no masterpiece and really not worth seeing.

Cutthroat Island (1995)

A strange film it has been on my want to watch list for a very long time and on countless occasions I nearly went with it but never did. However I have instigated a new viewing policy and added it nearly at the top of the watch pile so when it came around I just watched it. I was probably very disappointed as I seemed to have from nowhere developed very high expectations from this Pirate film before Pirates of the Caribbean. Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and directed by Renny Harlin about the exploits and treasure seeking of a female pirate in Geena Davis. 

There was not an awful lot wrong with the film but again nothing really right about it, the story was quite complicated in a simple fashion with really obvious cliches and results. You knew what was going to happen and how it was going to happen so very little in the way of surprises. The performances were adequate with Davis trying to pull off the hardened pirate rather than the helpless woman and she failed at it quite badly but I think it was more to do with the story and the direction than her. 

This is a 2 star disappointment I have to say that the first Pirates of the Caribbean film is the film that this wishes it was even if it was made years before, I would love to know where my determination to see this film actually came from, maybe one day I will remember why I wanted to see it so badly. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Format - BluRay
Date Watched - 9 January 2010
Director - Gore Verbinski

Pirates of the Caribbean is a sweeping action-adventure story set in an era when villainous pirates scavenged the Caribbean seas. This roller coaster tale teams a young man, Will Turner, with an unlikely ally in rogue pirate Jack Sparrow. Together, they must battle a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elizabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a climactic confrontation on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fierce mortal combat, Will and Jack attempt to recapture The Black Pearl ship, save the British navy, and relinquish a fortune in forbidden treasure thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thanks to IMDb for the plot summary.

An film from 2003 that is based upon a ride at Disneyland of the same name, now I have no idea if there is a plot to the ride so if there is any correlation between the film and the ride. However you basic story is Man loves woman, woman loves man, but they do not tell each other. Woman kidnapped by pirates, man goes to rescue woman with Pirates old captain, turns out kidnapping pirates are cursed, and hilarity ensues.

I like this film it is a solid family film with some excellent laughs some good effects and a fairly coherent story. It is a fairly straight forward film with some nice little sub plots and characters and it is a really good ride. The biggest drawback to the film is that it is nearly 2 and half hours long and they made 2 more, third sequel is apparentley in the making. The sequels are terrible in my opionion and at least Pirates was made in a time when sequels while common were not guaranteed therefore you get a nice finish to the story, it is open for a sequel but not needed.

So it is a huge film with a large cast your main players are Johnny Depp playing Captain Jack Sparrow and he has spawned a phenomenom as he is a much loved character with his quirkyness and the way he plays it. He apparantly based his performance it on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, a very good impression from what I have seen. Your loving couple from the film are Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, they are adequate, they are pretty enough to make a good couple but their acting skills while not great are good enough for the family fun that this film is. Geoffrey Rush plays Captain Barbossa and he is immense in my opinion he plays the bad guy with humour and campiness but when he threatens someone you actually believe that he is dark enough to be a feared Pirate Captain. The supporting cast are good enough with some good comedy between McKenzie Crook and Lee Arenberg as 2 bumbling pirates. The effects are impressive, no less than you would expect from a Disney film, the obvious CGI that is required to pull off what they required is very good, you know it is CGI but it is good enough that you can see past that fact.

If you have not seen this film, I would recommend it, it is family entertainment at the best Disney can produce live action and the music will run around in your head for days afterwards, the quality on the BluRay is impeccable and well worth viewing. However do not bother with the sequels, I may re-watch them at sometime but the twice I have seen the second it did nothing for me at all and the third is only memorable for the reasons I do not like it.

I give this 4/5 swashbuckling pirates.

Let me know if you have seen it and your thoughts on it.