On a quest to find the fountain of youth, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) contends with an old enemy (Geoffrey Rush), an old lover (Penélope Cruz)… and the fearsome Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

The fourth film in this franchise introduces a few new characters, one of which is a romantic interest for our lovably boozy Jack, but Rob Marshall’s take is only slightly less bloated than Gore Verbinski’s two previous chapters.

Depp, Rush and McShane are fun, and I love the absurd mermaid attack, but Cruz is less effective and the 3D merely OK.

2011-U.S. 137 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Rob Marshall. Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. Cast: Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow), Penélope Cruz (Angelica Malon), Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa), Ian McShane (Blackbeard), Kevin McNally, Sam Claflin, Stephen Graham, Richard Griffiths… Keith Richards, Judi Dench. 

Trivia: Inspired by Tim Powers’s novel “On Stranger Tides”. Mick Jagger was approached for a role. Followed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).