Movie Releases, 7/7

This week's only major release is the sequel to what many considered a surprise hit back in 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp returns to the role that finally made him a star after years of great performances went unwatched. And not like you care, but Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return as well. If this does well, then they might make a third one. Oh, they already did. That comes out next summer.

There are a couple of limited releases as well. Richard Linklater returns with A Scanner Darkly, based on the Philip K. Dick novel. This uses stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, and so forth and then animates them a la Linklater's Waking Life, or those Charles Schwab commercials. All said, it's science fiction tackling drug abuse--which I'm sure as has been observed, funny Downey, Jr. is in this. But I'm sure it's all part of his "new outlook" and so on.

And, if you were a fan of Comedy Central's "Strangers With Candy," well, you get the full-on movie treatment in select cities. This is a prequel! Amy Sedaris returns as the 47-year-old high school freshman Jerri Blank, "boozer, user, and loser." Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello, co-writers with Sedaris, also star, with some cameos by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Matthew Broderick, among others.