Afraid to get wet? Plunging into and flipping At World's End.

by Ryland Walker Knight

Given all that surrounds the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it is hard to believe these movies could be smart films, let alone films this smart. Not only that, the films are hard to believe, period. One's natural impulse is to resist. And there's a lot to resist. They're bloody pirate movies, for one. For another, it's a bloody fantastical pirate movie franchise inspired by a theme park ride and brought to light by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. In the third film, At World's End, there is a lot of exposition in the scenes driven by dialogue-as-interrogation and it barrels at the viewer without pause, leading many to think the film is incomprehensible, and dismissible. At first, I resisted, too.

[For the rest of the review click here and you will be forwarded to The House Next Door.]

02007: 168 minutes: dir. Gore Verbinski: written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio.

[Some crucial (anti-)climactic images from Dead Man's Chest in lieu of no screengrab possibilities for At World's End, here in the present.]