BAD BOY: Jack Sparrow (right) can’t seem to plot a straight course.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy

JACK’S back in a big way. This second installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series moves at full speed from start to finish.

The movie begins with the interrupted wedding of Will Turner (Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightley), and it isn’t long before their lives are deeply entangled with the misadventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp).

It seems Jack owes a rather large debt to Davey Jones (Nighy), Captain of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship and ruler of the ocean depths. Jack’s in a real fix, because if he can’t squirm out of the deal then he’ll be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation aboard the Flying Dutchman.

Needless to say, he makes rather a mess of things.

Depp is brilliant as the rock-idol Sparrow, and Knightley is beautiful, talented and hilarious. Bloom remains a bit wooden in his performance, but still worth watching, especially when he concentrates on fight scenes instead of dialogue.

I felt that there were some scenes in this Disney movie that would scare the wits out of small children, but those that sat in front of me at the cinema seemed immune to the death, destruction and monsters.

Personally, I loved it and I can’t wait for the next movie with Keith Richards playing the part of Jack Sparrow’s dad.

– LT Cameron Jamieson