Jack 'n Black at Frankly CuriousFrankly Curious

I just watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. As entertainments go, it is an excellent film—the best of the series. It is everything that it tries to be.

Gore Verbinski, who directed the first three films, likes his action sequences long—far too long. Rob Marshall, like the good musical-loving fag he is, knows just how long to push a scene. His instincts (or his editors’ or producers’) are dead on. (In his defense, Verbinski directed Rango, which was also an excellent entertainment.)

By this time in the series, it is impossible for Barbossa to be a villain. (That was always true for me, given how much I love Geoffrey Rush.) This time, they bring in the wonderful Ian McShane (who I also can’t help but like after 36 hours of Deadwood) as the villain Blackbeard. I don’t know anything about pirates, so I looked Blackbeard up on Wikipedia.[1] It said:

A shrewd and calculating leader, [Edward] Teach [AKA “Blackbeard”] spurned the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response he desired from those he robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the permission of their crews and there is no known account of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held captive.

That really struck me: he sounds just like Jack Sparrow.

[1] Do I need to provide a link? Just go to Google, enter “blackbeard” and click, “I’m Feeling Lucky”!