Best film performance by Johnny Depp since he became Captain Jack (no cameos)

The classic film 'goof', one of the invading pirates yells "Geronimo" as he swings from boat to boat.

enjoyed the first one alright, depp and rush were fun in it, there were some fun action set pieces, it felt old fashioned in a welcome way, and it was far far far better than any could've expected from a gore verbinski adaptation of an amusement park ride. after that they seemed to think they were making an epic, or several epics it was such an incoherent mix of dumb mythologies, the fun was drained out and they became ridiculously tedious. as verbinski-depp collaborations go i'll still take rango.

Totally. First one would have been a great and well-remembered fun summer flick, except that the second two are almost Matrix-level in terms of dispersing any goodwill through piled-up Macguffins, extra characters, characters racing each other to nowhere and back, mystical gibberish and action padding in order to make the second two movies a "set" of some kind. If there had to be a sequel, they should have taken a deep breath and eased off on the "everything must be a trilogy" thing, come up with a good one-movie story about some pirates (not necessarily the same ones) and let that be that. There was nothing more to gain by more Jack Sparrow except overexposing him and ruining the fun, and there was nothing more to learn about any of the rest of the characters. Bill Nighy was fun but had nothing to really do but flop around and gurgle at people.

Gutsy thing would have been an all-new cast and story and bet on the audience trusting the brand to deliver, not Johnny Depp, but pirate fun. I couldn't believe it when they made a fourth one years later, and really can't believe that it's one of the top-grossing films of all time, as I never talked to anybody who gave a shit about seeing it. Predictably they're making a fifth one which means that Depp will have been doing this kooky one-off role for thirteen plus years.

the last pirates was the least successful domestically but HUUUUUUUGE foreign

2011 was a big year for "i can't say i know anyone who repped for that" movies - Transformers 3, Hangover II, The Twilight Movie With The Wedding, Pirates 4, Cars 2 and Sherlock Holmes 2 all in the top 10.

(i took fast five, mission impossible 4 and thor out as movies i've heard someone rep for)

(oh and The Last Harry Potter)

you ppl know a lotta pantswetting reppers

yes, we have friends

Better:

http://200movies1woman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/the-pirates-band-of-misfits02.jpg

Can't remember if it's better:

http://theadventuresoftransman.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1734_mm4998rfue.jpeg

We just watched Muppet Treasure Island the other night. It was okay, couple of really good gags (mostly in the songs), but not better than the first Pirates flick. Tim Curry's mugging is pitched well for the kid-level audience; I'd have accepted him in a re-cast Pirates sequel. As a kid I remember liking Shipwrecked okay, can't remember anything about it though.

i'm ok w/ that movie now but man few movies have disappointed me as much as yellowbeard did at the time

enjoyed the first one alright, depp and rush were fun in it, there were some fun action set pieces, it felt old fashioned in a welcome way, and it was far far far better than any could've expected from a gore verbinski adaptation of an amusement park ride. after that...they became ridiculously tedious.

― balls, Monday, August 4, 2014 11:42 AM (1 hour ago)

sums it up for me. did enjoy the first one a hell of a lot, even on the 2nd pass.

when I rented the first one eleven years I couldn't believe this was a two-hours-plus movie. I couldn't recommend it because it was too damn long and the material sucked and it was obv padded.

Pirates 2 overall really isn't that good, but that whole sequence with the water-wheel really is the best sequence of the whole series. I might also be nostalgic for the days when movie executives thought a trilogy was as far as a franchise could go.

the problem with a lot of trilogies today is that they really should be one movie (cf. the hobbit series) and there are a lot of "trilogies" that end up being four movies with the last two padded out, like "why make 900 million domestic when you can make 1.2 billion" i guess is their way of thinking.

Even though he keeps making them, Johnny Depp is a little bit confused by the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. "They had to invent a trilogy out of nowhere," he candidly tells EW about the last two movies. "It was plot driven and complicated. I remember talking to (director Gore Verbinski) at certain points during production of 2 or 3, and saying: 'I don't really know what this means.' He said, 'Neither do I, but let's just shoot it.' This guy is this guy's dad, and this guy was in love with this broad. It was like, 'What?'" If those movies eventually made sense in postproduction, Depp admits that he wouldn't know it: "I did see the first one. I have not seen the second one or the third one."

yeah, I remember coming out of the movie theater having liked Pirates 2 and I'm almost certain it's exclusively because of that water-wheel fight sequence, which is possibly the best action sequence I've seen in a movie in the 00s.

xxp

I'm amazed anyone found the first film fun (only one I've seen), I thought it was unusually bland even for an action blockbuster. The idea of a rip-roaring ghost pirate adventure sounds spectacular but it was a total slog. The fork in the rolling eyeball and "you can trust a liar to be dishonest" line were the only brief points of interest for me.
I'd love a good fun pirate movie but I've never heard of one yet.

I once saw a quote from Keira Knightly saying she and her co-stars thought the film was "shit" and that they were doing it purely for money. I wonder if it was real.

i think for fun pirate movies you've generally got to go back to the '40s iirc. the most recent awesome seafaring film is 'master and commander' obv.

still so pissed that that didn't turn into a series w/ tons of sequels, etc.

potc makes me think of beetlejuice where you have this one crazy performance that dominates the film but the main character doesn't actually appear until half an hour in & gets relatively little screen time. The difference is that in beetlejuice there are a whole load of other fun performances and stuff to keep you entertained, potc is like a beetlejuice where every other part of the movie is dogshit

dissing johnny deep via comparison to a burton-winona movie: that's how it's done

u gotta compare like with like

I saw pirates at the cinema (it was the "surprise movie" at a festival) and it was better than I expected but I tried to watch it again when it was on tv and the tedious bullshit you have to put up with for 30-minute stretches while you wait for another bit of depp/rush schtick was like fuck this

I wrote a piece eons ago about big-budget porn, hinging on the porn "Pirates" (not a parody), and basically pointed out how many of the "PotC" beats (har) it more or less got down, from the FX to the script to the acting, all on a pittance (relative to H'Wood though huge for porn). It was less about the ambition of the adult industry and more about the laziness of Hollywood.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The best pirate movie of the recent years is Treasure Planet, which didn't really deserve to be a flop.

The Aardman / Defoe Pirates is magnificent, I'd see it 2 or 3 more times at the cinema just to look at different parts of the screen each time and look for characters and gags crammed in, if I could

I once saw a quote from Keira Knightly saying she and her co-stars thought the film was "shit" and that they were doing it purely for money. I wonder if it was real.

I once listened to the Knightley / Miles Out Of This Life commentary on the first PotC and subsequently imagine Davenport could have that opinion, but doubt Knightley has the self-awareness

I should have my kids see that. I think I saw an early screening of it eons ago, and don't recall it being terrible. Do kids read "Treasure Island" anymore?

xpost

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/Captain_Blood.jpeg/220px-Captain_Blood.jpeg

Cool, I see Rathbone is in Captain Blood too.

Used to love The Crimson Pirate when I was a kid.

My fave Pirate movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZyWlcPt2IY

caught most of sleepy hollow last night, the last burton i have real fondness for. seems unfairly slighted, i've seen it grouped in passing w/ truly terrible burton like wonka or alice. i'm not sure if it's due to the somewhat poor script or it being the moment ppl realized christina ricci isn't much of an actress, but it looks fantastic, there's a fun embrace of darkness and gore, and there are enough moments that feel like it was made by the same guy who did pee wee's big adventure and beetlejuice. depp is alright in it, he lapses into cute mannerisms but there's some actual acting as well. i'd take it over anything listed above as well as pirates.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

only two with no votes!

The best film probably won, though I guess you can't really credit it's greatness to Depp. (He is good in it, though.)

caught most of sleepy hollow last night, the last burton i have real fondness for. seems unfairly slighted, ...but it looks fantastic, there's a fun embrace of darkness and gore, and there are enough moments that feel like it was made by the same guy who did pee wee's big adventure and beetlejuice. ...i'd take it over anything listed above as well as pirates.

― balls, Tuesday, August 5, 2014 11:13 AM (12 hours ago)

otm. easily burton's best looking film, w/ much of the credit likely due to emmanuel lubezki.

"Transcendence" is the worst movie I've seen in a while, simultaneously super-dumb and super-self-important. Not even fun, just a glum lump of a movie with terrible acting from Depp and Rebecca Hall.

Looks like nothing new but well done:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/black-mass/review/820013

Wasn't keen on Out Of The Furnace but at least there are no Afflecks in this one. Kind of looking forward to it, but have been disappointed by recent critically acclaimed Boston Crime movies, they don't make 'em like Eddie Coyle any more!

Aint that the truth, love that movie