A patchy and overlong sequel but still full of humour and top-notch action.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Stellan Skarsgaard
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenwriter: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
Producer: Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Bruce Hendricks, Eric McLeod
Composer: Hans Zimmer
DVD Info
Release:
Mar 3, 2009
Blu-ray Disc Features:
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Digital - English
Reviews
Lumpen direction, lousy writing and pouting performances aside, the worst thing about Dead Man's Chest is its interminable length.
You might well need a bottle of rum to get through that two-and-a-half hour running time.
Too long, and too wrapped up in its various plot contrivances to notice it’s veering off course. But Jack just about pulls the wheel back, aided by Verbinski’s flair for cartoonish comedy action.
As the film heaves from one muddily motivated set-piece to the next, McGuffins accruing like barnacles all the while (the sketch! the key! the papers! the chest! the heart!), it takes on the sinking feeling of a vessel adrift, sending out flares.
Not quite as good as the first film, but it pulls it all together for a thoroughly enjoyable final act.
A complicated plot involving a mysterious key and Will's seafood-wearing dad fights for space between relentless action sequences in a film so overloaded that it threatens to capsize.
Yes, there's a massive cliffhanger of an ending. And yes, it leaves us gagging for more.
As much as we might want to fall madly in love with this adventure, the disappointment is that it makes its pirates' lives seem just that little less attractive.
As you'd expect from a sequel, everything that made the original interesting is amplified to within an inch of its life.
I had a ball watching the film as it careened from set piece to set piece, whether it be a chase scene, a sword fight or a battle on the seas.
Surpasses its predecessor in making entertainment out of nonsense.
Dead Man's Chest is simply something we've been missing most of this entire summer - a film that's truly alive.
No doubt will end up one of the most popular and successful sequels in cinema history, but like the small act that grows too big too soon, the initial enchantment has faded.
Just because you can do something does not mean you have to. Long and noisy is not enough.
Yes. Johnny Depp is again hilarious as Capt. Jack Sparrow. Yes. Keira Knightley is fetching in period duds. And, yes, Orlando Bloom is in fine swashbuckling form.
With dashing heroes, swashbuckling damsels, vile villains and enough plot for two films, Dead Man's Chest is worth digging up.
An empty vessel... bloated beyond all recognition, and [evidencing] absolutely no flow or consistency -- there's nary a human heartbeat here in its two-and-a-half-hour-plus running time.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at IGN
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at AskMen


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