Available at Amazon.com
Director
Gore Verbinski
Cast
Johnny Depp”¦”¦”¦Captain Jack Sparrow
Orlando Bloom”¦”¦”¦Will Turner
Keira Knightley”¦”¦”¦Elizabeth Swann
Bill Nighy”¦”¦”¦Davy Jones
Jack Davenport”¦”¦”¦Norrington
DVD Release Date: December 5, 2006
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 150 Minutes On 2 Discs
The Movie
The sequel jinx has been around for decades. A movie is successful. It makes its budget back and a little bit extra; so it’s bound to have a second movie made. Maybe even a third or fourth or so on and so on. But it’s a given fact that most of the sequels end up extremely sub-par to the first film and sometimes even tarnish the first’s greatness. There are those that slip through the cracks of sequel hell and end up being better than the first such as Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, and now”¦Dead Man’s Chest.
The sequel to the very successful The Curse Of The Black Pearl is what I believe to truly be the better of the two films. I love the first film so very much, but the second one just took it up another notch.
Captain Jack is back, but he owes a debt to the deadly ghost pirate, Davy Jones and his half pirate-half monster crew. Jones is after Jack’s soul, but he isn’t willing to give it up easily so of course he does all he can to avoid the demonic crew and their captain. Jack tries to convince Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann to once again join him in his quest of finding a way out of this mess. Jack certainly comes across some of his biggest challenges in Davy Jones, his men, his own conscience, and the humongous Kraken.
The different situations that this group gets themselves into is each so unique, that I honestly had no idea that two and a half hours had gone by when the credits started to roll. The acting is all top notch by everyone involved in the film whether it’s those who are on screen for almost the entire movie to the voodoo woman in the forest who gets maybe ten minutes of screen time.
One thing I noticed about Dead Man’s Chest is just how good the movie really is. The movie seamlessly moves from the first film to this one without missing a single beat. But then I realized that this movie could stand alone all by itself even if it there hadn’t been a movie before it. Black Pearl obviously had this quality because once the movie was over, it was over. There didn’t need to be another one after it to have it be a great film.
The same goes with the sequel as it does everything right. It gives some background on the characters without going too much into what you already know. It introduces a brand new story without having to know what happened in the first one. It just brings about action, drama, comedy, adventure, and so much more all rolled into one great film.
I could ramble on and on about how wonderful it was and all the things it did right, but it’s just all so easy because it’s so true. The first introduced us to Captain Jack and the rest. The second gave us so much more. And the third film due out next year will bring everything to a grand close. The thing is, all three films together would probably add up to at least an eight hour long feature”¦and I’d sit and watch the whole thing and want for more.
The Video
The film is shown in 2.35:1 Widescreen and looks fantastic. There is so much different scenery in this film that you get the benefit of seeing every color under the sun at some point or another, and they all look so incredibly perfect”¦well, that I have not a single complaint.
The Audio
The film is heard in 5.1 Dolby Surround and also sounds wonderful. The dialogue can be heard well and the action sequences, and there’s certainly a lot of them, sound amazing.
Special Features
Captain Jack: From Head To Toe – A very cool extra here as you can learn about all that makes up Jack from literally head to toe. Find out secrets about his hat, belt, sword, boots, bandana, hair, beard, and so much more. Really is quite interesting.
Meet Davy Jones: Anatomy Of A Legend – The entire history and creation of Davy Jones. Not only do you learn some about his past, but there’s also the great behind the scenes of how the monster body of Jones was brought about in Bill Nighy, CGI, drawings, scans, and so much more just to bring this one character to life.
Bloopers Of The Caribbean – Short but very funny.
Mastering The Blade – Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Jack Davenport all learn how to swordfight.
Audio Commentary – Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio discuss the entire film as to how they came about doing certain scenes, what they took from the attraction, and how the actors gave new elements to the story they had written. Really is a very good listen if you feel like watching the film again, which you will.
Charting The Return: A Preproduction Diary – Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski, and the entire crew take you through how the second film came about. From day one of creating it on paper to building the sets to actors learning how to sword fight, they tell how everything came about month by month.
According To Plan: Journal Of Filming Of The Movie – The producers and directors speak about how it was to get together for a sequel and then the decision to film two sequels back to back. They discuss how everything had to be carefully laid out so as not to have the crew get burnt out during almost an entire year of shooting.
Fly On The Set: The Bone Cage – The actual filming of the bone cage scene from the film and it looks like it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Creating The Kraken – Much like the Davy Jones featurette, the history of the creature is first given by producers, writers, and the cast. Then how the Kraken was designed; and how the scenes were shot without the creature actually being there are shown and it’s really a very cool watch.
Dead Men Tell New Tales: Re-Imagineering The Attraction – All about how the film inspired some changes in the attraction that started it all, “The Pirates Of The Caribbean” in Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Pirates On Main Street: The World Premiere – Experience what the cast and crew had to go through going down the red carpet of Main Street at Disneyland.
A Produce’s Photo Diary With Jerry Bruckheimer – Some absolutely fantastic stills from the duration of filming while Bruckheimer talks about his immense love for photography.
The Inside Pulse
There is just nothing else that can be said about this DVD except for you to go out and get it. Even if you’ve seen the first movie or not, you’re going to want to see this one. And the extras alone are well worth the purchase, so don’t worry about going out and renting it because you’re going to want to watch everything over and over. You get close to eight hours of enjoyment from everything on these two discs and you will want to watch every second of it. Disney certainly hit the jackpot with the Pirates series and I simply cannot wait for the third film.
