Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Adventure
3.5 stars
Cute, but not as good as previous efforts. Johnny Depp reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, this time racing against his nemesis, Geoffrey Rush, as well as the Spanish on a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. Penelope Cruz helps spice up the cast, and I liked the vampire-like mermaids. Mostly, I think the actors were just having a good ole time playing pirates and I just didn’t get caught up in the story as I have with the previous films. Maybe it’s just me, but I had trouble deciphering the thick British accents in the London scenes. As with the last film, there is a very brief final scene after the seemingly endless closing credits. The scene is cute, but not really worth the long wait – there’s plenty of time to visit the restroom and come back to catch it (or you can just ask me and I’ll tell you what happened in the 5 second scene). Of course, the ending is set up for yet another sequel. Only for fans of the previous Pirate films.