Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

A great start, but for me the highlight of the trilogy is the second part. Orlando Bloom annoys the hell out of me in this film (in the same way he made Troy a bit unpleasant), but otherwise everything is OK. Captain Sparrow's arrival in port will hopefully go down in movie history! (06/04/2009)

A great adventure ride, but I can’t say I liked it that much. Verbinski's direction is skilful and inventive in parts, but it all rests too heavily on the performance of Johnny Depp, whose deadpan and swashbuckling Captain Jack Sparrow may propel this unconventional pirate movie into the ranks of the most popular adventure films, but it's far from the best. What I missed was a more even and fluid plot, which is quite overstuffed in places and the strong makeup in the form of spectacular battles or great jokes can't completely mask it. 70% (08/06/2012)

Concentrated, clean, and excellent entertainment that really has very few weak points. Verbinski managed to revive the pirate genre and the attraction of Disneyland in a single movie. The truth is that he really had the support of Jerry Bruckheimer (thanks for Keira, Jerry :), ILM and especially Johnny Depp, who captivated everyone with his now-well-worn creation: Jack Sparrow, “The Worst Pirate You've Ever Heard of". Part two is knocking on the door of our old, dusty, small-town movie theatre. I couldn't go there without watching the first movie again. (09/05/2006)

Pirates of the Caribbean = an unexpectedly successful attack on audiences' wallets, or a modern fairy tale about how Johnny's gorgeous make-up and Orlando's dark eyes made a fortune for Disney. I really can't remember the last time I took real pleasure in watching an all-around goofy and jerky actor with the amusing visage of a stoned Rastaman, as I did here with Depp. And Orlando? Someone should tell him that there are no elves in the Caribbean. He's wooden as always, but thanks to his romantic appearance he attracted a lot of female fans to the cinema (see the quote "I almost drowned in his beautiful dark eyes...") and they don't care whether he can act or not. Who can certainly act is Geoffrey Rush, hes smarmy corsair was a joy to watch. But the biggest star for me is Jerry Bruckheimer. Spectacular sets and a big budget, in short, what we are used to in his films. It must be a pleasure to work under his wing. (10/09/2003)

The film that made Johnny Depp a real star, a film that showed that pirate movies are definitely not passé and that Disney still has something to offer to a wide audience. Entertaining, action-packed, imaginative with great characters and surprisingly it doesn't get boring even after several viewings. True, I already know the story very well, but it's still a ride. (04/12/2015)