PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN (#2... of 3? or more?)

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest.

I don't get it. I just don't understand why this flick is so popular. I am, frankly, clueless.

• It is slightly funny, but other films are funnier.
• Depp's performance is weird, and isn't even surprising -- it's just a pale version of his performance in the first film.
• It has a few very good set pieces, but so do a lot of better films.
• The plot is murky... the motivation for most of the story unconvincing.
• The visual quality is murky. I thought it would be great to see it in a theater rather than on video, but much of the film is dark and dirty. Not too much is interesting to look at.
• The "story" is not really told very well.
• The pirates don't do any pirating... How do they make a living?
• I had trouble understanding a lot of the dialog.
• I had trouble remembering who was who as characters popped up after being gone for a while.
• It has no ending... just a set-up for a sequel.

What am I missing? Is it made for young boys who were on the ride, and love ugly, dirty creatures, killing, lashing, and gore? Or is it for young girls, looking for forbidden love with a dashing evil pirate who will be really good-at-heart when he is inspired by a beautiful woman?

Is the search for the key to Davy Jones Locker such a resonant mythology these days that it will power the whole film to record box office?

The film is a perfectly fine example of escapist entertainment, but why so popular?

For lots of information about this film, see Wikipedia.

Actress Model; CC Heidik

Hayden Christensen

Hayden Christensen was born in Vancouver, but his family later moved to the Toronto area, where he went to school. He has a brother, 27, and two sisters, 25 and 15 years old. His parents are in the communications business.

Hayden broke into acting in an unusual way. His older sister did a commercial for Pringles (she was Junior World Trampoline Champion). When she went to get a talent agent, "there was no one to baby-sit me and I went along for the ride and they asked me if I wanted to do some commercials and I said sure," Hayden added. When he was 12 years old, Christensen had a continuing role in the first Canadian television soap opera, the daily hour-long Family Passions.

Hayden was recently seen on the Fox Family Channel series Higher Ground, and is currently in the Sofia Coppola film The Virgin Suicides. But he has been acting since he was seven years old in commercials, theater and television, and has done two other films: Strike and In the Mouth of Madness. Other recent television credits include Purple Haze and Free Fall.