Movie #158: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Movie #: 158
Movie Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Year Released: 2003

Director: Gore Verbinski
Notable Cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Kevin McNally

Short Description: Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor's daughter, from Jack's former pirate allies, who are now undead. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: #100
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #57
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/5/2016

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)

Rationale: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has all of the elements that turn not just a good movie into a great movie but a great movie into an epic movie. Lead by Johnny Depp in what I believe is one of the best acting performances there is as Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates has a fun and adventurous story with bits of humor and intrigue while being innovative with its special effects (turning humans into skeletons right before your eyes) and captivating with a gorgeous score co-written by Hans Zimmer (my favorite film composer). While no movie is flawless, little could be asked of to make Pirates better.

On a side note, it’s well documented that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was not expected to fare well because the pirate genre hadn’t had a successful movie in decades and the concept of the movie was based on a theme park ride. The movie was released in theaters on 7/9/2003 and I still have my ticket stub from seeing it on 7/10/2003. I’m proud that I've been on the Pirates bandwagon from essentially day one, earlier than the vast majority of Pirates of the Caribbean fans.