I saw Pirates of the Carribean last night, and what a hell of a ride that movie was. Next to T3, easily the most fun I've had at the movies this summer. Johnny Depp's performance is...well it's really hard for me to describe how fucking incredible it was. It's arguably his best performance to date. It's definately up there with Ed Wood and Hunter S. Thompson (FALILV). I'm also starting to have the opinion that he is quite simply the best actor of our generation. Unlike the majority of them he completely changes from character to character. I can't think of one Depp film, even the bad ones, where I'm thinking "Hey, that's Johnny Depp." I was completely engulfed in the character of Jack Sparrow, oh I'm sorry... Captain Jack Sparrow, and was excited to learn that there will be further adventures. One of my favorite scenes was when he was about to be hung and they're reading off his charges of criminal acts. The expressions of rememberance that Depp gives are priceless, and that gay Keith Richards accent is the strangest thing I've ever heard, but it works. After Depp, there's still plenty to enjoy. Geoffery Rush chews up the scenery with flourish as Captain Barbarosa, Orlando Bloom is also very good as the young hero, and the girl, who's name I can't remember, while being absolutely gorgeous, is a solid actress as well. The scenery is well laid out, and the action scenes are brisk and borderline classic looking. There's thankfully not a shaky cam ship chase. Gore Verbinski is proving to be a very good commercial director. There were some flaws, such as the Commodore's ridiculously sudden change of heart in the last two minutes of the film, and the fact that the curse itself is not well explained in some areas and leaves open a few gaping plot holes. But this is a fun swashbuckling adventure none the less with a Johnny Depp performance that will probably be one of the five best of 2003 if not number one. Star Rating: ***1/2