Critic Reviews
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David Ansen, Newsweek
Here -- in a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced high-seas adventure that incorporates roaring cannons, oddball comedy, a love story and more than a touch of the supernatural -- Depp unleashes his theatrical bravado. He's hilarious.
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, Time Out
Depp invests this overfed, action-tractioned swashbuckler with a voluptuous wit and spry spontaneity it surely doesn't deserve.
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Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Buries its treasures -- mainly Johnny Depp in eye shadow and dreads as Captain Jack Sparrow -- in briny clichés.
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Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Pirates reminds me of a vintage MGM musical, a movie that is more choreographed than directed, and one that serves up good clean fun of the PG-13 variety.
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David Edelstein, Slate
At, say, 85 minutes, this would have been a jolly little swashbuckler, but at 143 it turns into an unholy trial.
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Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
An awkward pirate epic that's jampacked with energy, ambition and spectacular effects.
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Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Rip-roaring fun for kids who don't mind skeletons.
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Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Entertaining, exciting, and engrossing with a genuine feel of adventure along with excellent performances, this is truly worth watching.
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Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Were it not for Johnny Depp's crassly reassured character creation of scoundrel pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, there would be nothing to relish in this overlong and witless waste of celluloid based on a Disneyland ride.
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Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile
It's just a lot of fun.
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Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
Pirates of the Caribbean turns out to be a Hollywood blockbuster in the best sense of the word: a glorious piece of large-scale entertainment
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Stefan Birgir Stefansson, sbs.is
one of the all time greatest adventure flicks
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James Plath, Movie Metropolis
It now strikes me as one of the best of the genre.
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Joe Lozito, Big Picture Big Sound
Oops, there I go again talking about Johnny Depp. Get used to that. He's all you'll remember from the movie.
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Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews
The whole feature film is one giant ride -- which considering its origins is perhaps to be expected. ... Depp gives his loosest and looniest performance yet -- and it is spectacular.
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Jason Zingale, Bullz-Eye.com
Pirates of the Caribbean is exactly what you look for in a summer blockbuster, all while delivering a much-needed overhaul to the classic pirate flicks of the golden years.
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Tim Appelo, Seattle Weekly
Are the DVD extras worth the doubloons? Arrgh, heartily, matey! They're a very three-disc treasure chest worth a keelhauling to own.
Read all 17 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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For the first 45-minutes, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is quite entertaining and fun to watch. But the longer it goes on, the more messier and frustrating it becomes to watch. Gore Verbinski is clearly a director who can make a blockbuster as this big look… More
For the first 45-minutes, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is quite entertaining and fun to watch. But the longer it goes on, the more messier and frustrating it becomes to watch. Gore Verbinski is clearly a director who can make a blockbuster as this big look amazingly good. But even with it's visual strenghts there is no denying that the screenplay by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot is a one big mess. There has been clearly too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to story and all the nicely choreographed swordfights and supernatural twists in the story cannot save this film from sinking into it's own overlenght.
Cast is clearly having just fun with their characters. Especially Johnny Depp as a iconic Jack Sparrow is offbeat character who serves most of the film's best comedic moments. Orlando Bloom is likeable as a young blacksmith turned into hero and Geoffrey Rush seems to enjoy his role as mean Captain Barbossa. Weakest link here seems to be Keira Knightley as a Elizabeth Swann. There is something awfully forced in her performance and i never cared about her character that much. But as i said, this is no film that is even trying to reach for any larger than life performances.
The Curse of the Black Pearl is a film which is made to look and sound as big and loud as possible. It is a film that aims for pure entertainment. Sometimes it does succeed in delivering the fun but most of the time it misses it's mark and becomes only a boring and overblown mess. With tighter editing this could have been much more rewarding and richer experience to sit through.
There is no doubt that fans of Johnny Depp will rate this film higher, but there is no deying that this is far from perfect, or even average, entertainment. There is no real moviemaking magic to be found from here and there is no real sense of good old adventure. This is all just polished surface with hollow core.
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Argh! This be an awesome movie! It's a fun adventure with plenty of humor, well done special effects, and great acting. Bummer that this is the only one that doesn't suck in the series. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" is not a flawless film; there are some plot… More
Argh! This be an awesome movie! It's a fun adventure with plenty of humor, well done special effects, and great acting. Bummer that this is the only one that doesn't suck in the series. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" is not a flawless film; there are some plot points that don't add up. But it's very unique and makes good use with what the genre has to offer.
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Pirates, skeletons, curses and Johnny Depp. Gore Verbinsky takes a simple Disney-based roller-coaster ride and develops an adaptation that is eerie and adventurous. Depp's performances makes up for the slight hiccups that occur throughout the film. 4/5
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The first of the pirate adventures. Captain Jack Sparrow has to recover his ship - the Black Pearl. He ropes in Keira and Orlando on the adventure. Johnny Depp is excellent. Orlando Bloom is hot!
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This franchise has made over $3 Billion worldwide. Seriously? Note to self: It's always best to disregard the masses. There's nothing extremely offensive here, there's nothing really good either. That includes Johnny Depp, I find his character irritating and forced.… More
This franchise has made over $3 Billion worldwide. Seriously? Note to self: It's always best to disregard the masses. There's nothing extremely offensive here, there's nothing really good either. That includes Johnny Depp, I find his character irritating and forced. The other thing, why the did this have to be so long? The storytelling is spread way too thin by the length. Well, whatever. This was mediocre at best, and like most mainstream series, I'm sure it's all downhill from here.
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Pirates is completely reliant on CGI. In the style of Roland Emmerich and desperately in need of a story and whats worse is you have to sit there for longer than 2 hours watching the same action sequences over and over and over again.
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Johnny Depp completely deserved his Oscar nomination for best actor from this movie, but Curse of the Black Pearl is also a highly entertaining blockbuster that delivers thrills and chills.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a very fun and entertaining movie. More than average story with amazing performances by Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. Jack Sparrow has to be one of my favorite characters in a long while. Johnny Depp carries the movie and… More
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a very fun and entertaining movie. More than average story with amazing performances by Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. Jack Sparrow has to be one of my favorite characters in a long while. Johnny Depp carries the movie and Klaus Badelt/Hans Zimmer's score creates a swashbuckling good time.
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I will never see the fascinated people have with A) Johnny Depp as a pirate and B) Anyone as a pirate. I think I dislike these movies because of what they created out of the mass audience of young teenage girls who have never seen Cry Baby, What's Eating Gilbert Grape or Benny… More
I will never see the fascinated people have with A) Johnny Depp as a pirate and B) Anyone as a pirate. I think I dislike these movies because of what they created out of the mass audience of young teenage girls who have never seen Cry Baby, What's Eating Gilbert Grape or Benny and Joon but still profess their love for Johnny Depp, who, I hate to tell them, doesn't wear eye liner all the time. Terrible English accents, recycled story lines and an awfully confusing plot that even the most die hard fans don't seem to fully understand, if it wasn't for Depp this movie would be at the bottom of the ocean where it belongs.
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An incredible entrance to the series, and Depps best performance ever in my opinion. Elizibeth Swan (Keira Knightly) saved her friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) as a child when she found him drifting in the water, and now as adults living in the Carribeans in Port Royal and are… More
An incredible entrance to the series, and Depps best performance ever in my opinion. Elizibeth Swan (Keira Knightly) saved her friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) as a child when she found him drifting in the water, and now as adults living in the Carribeans in Port Royal and are still friends but both secretly are in love with eachother. When she found him she found a meddalion around his neck, showing he was a pirate. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is a pirate, and has come to Port Royal in search of a ship and a crew. Jack Sparrow was once captain of a legendary ship called the Black Pearl, but was betrayed by his first mate Captain Barbossa (Geoffery Rush. When the Barbossa comes to Port Royal with his crew in search of the medallion, they kidnap Elizibeth, and Will sets out to find her, but when Jack gets put in jail, Will breaks him out in order to help him find Elizibeth, and so jack can get back his beloved Pearl. The plot is a good and fun journey, dealing with undead, soldiers, and cursed treasure. Johnny Depp is the show stealer in this, being able to make us laugh and hate him at the smae time, but nobody can hate Jack Sparrow, we all love him. The rest of the cast is very good too, espically Geoffery Rush, but hes always good. This is my second favorite in the series, and it really deserves every good review it gets.
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How can you not love P OTC? Jack Sparrow is one of my favourite movie characters and this doesn't fail to impress.
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The film has a flawless cast, Johnny Depp evokes the character of Jack Sparrow with great charisma and off kilter personality. Geoffrey Rush is also great as Jack Sparrows nemesis, Captain Barbossa. The film has a really good mix of quirky humor and action. The only big flaw of the… More
The film has a flawless cast, Johnny Depp evokes the character of Jack Sparrow with great charisma and off kilter personality. Geoffrey Rush is also great as Jack Sparrows nemesis, Captain Barbossa. The film has a really good mix of quirky humor and action. The only big flaw of the film is its length, which is 2 hours and 23 min. Although mostly exciting the whole way through, one cannot help but feel that the film could have been trimmed down a little. Filled with sword fights, ship battles, and wild locations; Pirates of the Caribbean manages to be a wild adventure the whole family can enjoy.
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POTC has always felt a bit awkward to me...it's hard to describe why. Like, I like Johnny Depp enough as Jack Sparrow but there are these pauses between his exchanges that I'm sure are there for character but really just take me out of the reality of the movie into my own… More
POTC has always felt a bit awkward to me...it's hard to describe why. Like, I like Johnny Depp enough as Jack Sparrow but there are these pauses between his exchanges that I'm sure are there for character but really just take me out of the reality of the movie into my own reality where I think, as Johnny Depp forgotten his lines or something. And, I don't know, I'm not usually a big stickler for acting but Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and that Commodore guy are just so unconvincing I could never fully get into the movie. I've seen this so many times that it's grown sort of tiresome to watch. But I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because I do really like the movie, conceptually.
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Yeah this was pretty good. Good acting...The effects looked pretty good...interesting story and a little bit of humor. Thumbs Up!
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excellent!
By far one of the better ones so far.
Its a very amusing and very enjoyable movie.
Johnny Depp is by far the best character ever and plays the part extremely well.
Really worth the watch
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For a movie based on a Disneyland ride, this turned out to be quite the surprise. Redefining the Pirate-movie genre, it's pure entertainment combined with adrenaline pumping action.
Amazing performances by Johny Depp and Geoffry Rush really bring out these fictional characters.
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The first installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise gains all the potential of being great, due to the fact that it has a lot riding on it. It is the first in a Disney series that will continue to hopefully follow the same track here. This movie is great, and I believe… More
The first installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise gains all the potential of being great, due to the fact that it has a lot riding on it. It is the first in a Disney series that will continue to hopefully follow the same track here. This movie is great, and I believe that true adventure and amazing storytelling is what makes this movie work so great!
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When this first came out, I didn't really have any desire to see it. I was never really into Johnny Depp or Pirates for that matter. Then, all I heard about was how great this movie was, so I gave it a chance, and fell in love. This is truly a great, classic epic… More
When this first came out, I didn't really have any desire to see it. I was never really into Johnny Depp or Pirates for that matter. Then, all I heard about was how great this movie was, so I gave it a chance, and fell in love. This is truly a great, classic epic action-adventure. Can't really think of anything I don't like about it. Great fight scenes, good special effects that still hold up, a great story and terrific acting. This is by far Johnny Depp's best role. He's usually too off-beat for me in most of his films, but here he is perfect and absolutely hilarious. Just as good and entertaining as the first time I saw it.
Read all 20 featured audience ratings
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