Avast me hearties, set sail for one of the most entertaining movies you’ll see all year, Johnny Depp is brilliant as Captain Jack Sparrow, (his much talked about fantastic accent is hard to place but pitched somewhere between Keith Richards and Oliver Reed), Sparrow is a pirate on the high seas and the movie, set in the West Indies in the 18th century, sees him teaming up with Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner to rescue Will’s childhood love Elizabeth (the beautiful Keira Knightley) who has been kidnapped by a despicable band of ghost pirates (headed by the ubiquitous Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa), the key to the whole thing though is a medallion worn by Elizabeth that has the power to restore the ghost pirates back to mortal form.

Based on the famous Disney ride of the same name, Pirates of the Caribbean entertains enormously (as it would with a script from the writers of Shrek) with director Gore Verbinski bringing us set piece after set piece (from large scale battles, a whole ghost squad of pirates, even the opening which sees Sparrow coming into port on a ship that’s sinking, stepping off the crows nest onto the quayside just as the ship goes under is first rate) that allows the entertainment to keep on building, this is also a very funny movie with laugh out loud dialogue, mostly courtesy of Johnny Depp who is a major revelation as Sparrow, looking as does like a member of a glam rock band circa 1972.

Definitely an essential purchase and one with a huge re-watchability factor, so many little touches and jokes that you need to watch it more than once to pick up on them all.

EXTRAS: This two disc set is also choc-a-block full of extras that include on disc one audio commentaries from director Verbinski and Johnny Depp, as well as one from cast members Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport and a Jerry Bruckheimer interview, there is also a third commentary from writers Stuart Beattie, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio and Jay Wolpert. There is also some enhanced DVD Rom material. DISC TWO features a doco on the making of the movie, some fantastic footage from the set of the film, various cast diaries, outtakes and fun bits, an interactive history of pirates, heaps of deleted scenes, image gallery, a scene progression of the Moonlight Serenade sequence and more DVD Rom material. A great package.