Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Kevin McNally, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Tom Hollander, Stellan Skarsgard, Naomie Harris

Rating: PG-13 due to intense sequences of adventure violence and frightening images

Runtime: 150 minutes

Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) and his merry crew returned in this 2006 sequel to the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean : Curse of the Black Pearl. The movie begins on the rain soaked day that would have been celebration of the nuptials between Will Turner (Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightley). But, alas, a happy wedding day wasn’t meant to be.

Lord Cutler Beckett (Hollander), working with the East India Company, arrives with arrest orders for Will, Elizabeth and Norrington (Davenport) because of their involvement in Jack’s escape at the end of the previous movie. Will, in an effort to save Elizabeth from the gallows, cuts a deal with Beckett. His task? He must track down Jack and bring his unique compass to Beckett. Will soon finds out that the mission isn’t as easy as it might seem.

Jack, in the meantime, has been visited by Bootstrap Bill (Skarsgard) who happens to be a crewman for the Flying Dutchman and also Will’s father. We learn Jack had previously made a deal with the legendary Davy Jones (Nighy), one of the great terrors of the seas, that allowed Jack to be captain of the Black Pearl for 13 years. Jack’s time is up and Davy Jones plans on collecting! Jack, who’s in fear for his life because of the dreaded black mark, orders the crew to keep the ship in the shallow waters in an effort to thwart Jones’ plans.

Will finally tracks down Jack and the crew on an island of cannibals. The cannibals, it seems, consider Jack to be a form of god, but, unfortunately for him, they’re still planning on making a nice feast out of him. The crew (or half of it at least) barely makes it out alive.

From there, Jack, Will and the crew, who are now joined by Pintel (Arenberg) and Ragetti (Crook), pay a visit to the mysterious Tia Dalma (Harris), in order to figure out the meaning of a strange drawing of a key that Jack has found. Tia Dalma reveals that the drawing signifies the key that opens the chest that contains the heart of Davy Jones. In short, the person who controls the heart, controls Davy Jones. It’s then a race against friend and foe to get to the chest first. But what does the open sea hold for Jack, Will and Elizabeth? Be sure to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” to find out!

I think everyone had high expectations for this sequel. Not only was it good to see the core cast back but the secondary characters made the movie even better. Pintel and Ragetti from the first movie were fun to watch and the addition of new characters such as Davy Jones and Tia Dalma were also interesting.

Most of the movie was nonstop, swashbuckling action. One of my favorite scenes was the imprisoned crew, in two separate cages supposedly made from human bone, trying to race against each other up the cliff. A couple of other scenes were the battle between Jack, Will and Norrington over the chest (and an even funnier scene when Jack taunts Davy Jones, thinking he has the heart, or does he) and the Kraken attacks were fun as well.

I think filmmakers tried to get a lot in the movie in 150 minutes and in some cases it was easy to get a little lost as to what was going on. It’s also easy to see why some movie fans didn’t like the cliffhanger ending (since it's leading in to "At World's End"). On the other hand, you couldn’t help but smile (ok, so I applauded) at the very last shot of the movie! However, between this and the first movie, my pick would have to be “Curse of the Black Pearl”.

My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Did You Know? The group’s reaction to Barbossa returning was legitimate. The cast had no idea that it was going to be Geoffrey Rush walking down the stairs.

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