Customer Reviews

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The whole family are fans of the series. We saw this opening weekend, kids loved it, I loved it. The wife wanted to walk right back in and watch it again! Not sure what the other people are complaining about.... Blackbeard was an awesome bad guy! Can't wait for # 5.

Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides(released May/11)is a welcome comeback for the franchise,which had bogged down in the second film,and started a slow climb up in the third;but not reaching quite up to the scale of the first film or this one.This one finds Depp firmly back in Sparrows character with all the "isms" he can muster,with a nicely edited and fast moving piece. .
The plot finds Sparrow in London and his first mate Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally)has been mistakenly dragged into court to face charges as...Jack Sparrow.The presiding judge is none other than the real Sparrow and he sentences his first mate to life in prison.In a typical switcharoo Sparrow accompanies his first mate as they are taken to prison,but when they arrive it seems they are both sentenced to die.Sparrow is brought before King George II(Richard Griffiths),who wants him to accompany his old nemesis Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush),to find the fabled fountain of youth(remember that compass from the last film?).Sparrow will have none of it and slips away from the crowded room.During his escapes he briefly runs into his father who gives him warnings re the fountain of youth and about an imposter of him that is trying to put a crew together.Sparrow ends up at a tavern and he meets his imposter,one Angelica(Penélope Cruz),who he deflowered in a convent years before and had not seen since.She claims she is the daughter of the infamous pirate Blackbeard,and before you can say Black Pearl,he is waylayed and brought on board Blackbeards ship.Back at the prison Barbarossa forces Sparrows first mate into servitude aboard his ship,as Gibbs also knows the location of the magical waters.
No one has seen Blackbeard,so Sparrow instigates a mutiny on his ship.He almost succeeds until Blackbeard appears before the crew and stops the mutiny in its tracks.With things settled into a manor more sided towards Blackbeard's purposes,the ship sails to find a mermaid from which its tears may be extracted,and Ponce de Leon's ship and the two chalices on board.Barbarossa is sailing also for the fountain but with a different purpose.It was Blackbeard that took the Black Pearl away from him and forced Barbarossa to cut his own leg off to save his life;so revenge,not youth,is on his mind.Add to all this the Spanish,who are also intent on finding the fountain,but again cross purposes to Blackbeard and Barbarossa;to destroy the fountain which is blasphemous to them and their Catholic beliefs.
Blackbeard captures a mermaid for her tears after a drawn and bloody battle.When they reach the land of the fountain,a decided impasse in the form of a cavernous ravine appears before them,at the bottom of which is a fast flowing river.Blackbeard forces Sparrow to jump into the water to search for Ponce De Leon's ship and the chalices.Jack finds the ship and Barbarossa;who has beat him to it.The ship sits on the edge of a cliff and they must both do a balancing act to get the cups.But they find the Spanish have beaten them to the punch.
Sparrow and Barbarossa raid the Spanish encampment and steal the cups.Jack and Barbarossa agree to work together to defeat Blackbeard.Sparrow returns with cups and takes Blackbeard to the fountain.Before long Barbarossa enters the picture,then the Spanish.A drawn and drag em out fight ensues with the Spanish trashing the fountain,Barabrossa getting his revenge on Blackbeard and Jack using the fountain to save Angelca's life.
Sparrow however strands Angelica on a desert island,Barbarossa returns to pirating on Blackbeards ship and Jack and his first mate start looking for a way to get the Black Pearl,in glass jar from Blackbeards ship,out of its prison.The film fades out as a voodoo doll of Jack,which Blackbeard had made,floats into the possession of a smiling Angelica.
Fast paced,well acted and scripted,the film is filled with Sparrow-isms and good doses of comedy.It is what made the first film so successful and I'm glad they have returned to this way of doing Pirates,once more.
Technically speaking the film is in its w/s a/r of 2:40:1 and is clear and crisp.The only extras are commentary and deleted scenes.
A highly recommended fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.Its pace and sense of humour harkens back to the first one,taking most of its good,and dispensing with most of the bad.4-4 1/2 stars.

I wish I hadn't bought this. What a waste of money. The third movie ends badly and I thought the fourth one would make up for that. Duh!! Penelope Cruz wasn't any good in Sahara as she can't act..and she hasn't learned how to yet. I think they ran out of money for this movie...what happened to all the great crew--Cotton with the parrot, the short guy, the guy with the wooden eye, and the bald guy etc etc etc. We needed to see Keith Richards a lot more and Barbosa a lot less. Depp tried really hard to keep it all together, but there was no spark between him and Cruz like there was with Knightly. There was a lot cruelty towards mermaids that could have been avoided. For a Disney film it was a little too violent. Don't get me wrong I'm not anti violence in films, but this was supposed to be aimed at young adolescents. Why did the Spanish destroy the temple?? How did they get the Pearl out of the bottle...how did Barbosa all of a sudden have the powers of Blackbeard?? How did Blackbeard have these powers?? Did I fall asleep?? I don't know but take my word for it...stop at movie #3.

No a great movie. Bought for its 3D. Have new 3d TV and blue ray. Hard to find content yet. Wait for it on free movie channels. Not worth 30 bucks.

Excellent movie, came at a quick delivery rate, had no issues at all. would reccomend this to anyone who likes the pirates of the carribean series (DVD).

This Movie is a hole lot of Crap it took Them one hour and Fiften Minute's to find the fountain of Youth with a hole lot of Stupid back and forth talking they should've found it twenty minute's in and then make them Young and then Old again After all the Name of the Movie is on Stranger Tides. it was really a waste of my time watching On Stranger Tides Go No Were And Then Sunk To The Bottom. the Next one Should Be Name Pirates Of The Caribbean on Stranger Bedfellow's With Angelina Jolie now that would Be one Kickass Pirate..Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

This isn't a review for the blu-ray or DVD issued, but from the film itself, which should be called a flick, not even a movie. Gone are the sword fights, gone is the epic feel of the former trilogy, gone are the wild and seemingly magical beings that could tear a ship in two, gone is the coherence, gone is Johnny Deep almost one third of the movie and his name is top billing. There were lots of dead moments where nothing happens of great importance and it seems like the old formula is just that: old... this was my last Pirates movie.

Does Disney need to kid-orient everything they have? After all, if they could go back to the former movies in feel and look, that would almost make me go back in theaters. For once, I didn't listen to critics and chose to pay and see for myself... I should have listened some reviews since I agree with lots of them. The inspiration that was there is now down-graded to a movie that doesn't even have the epic production of the first movie... and that's saying a lot.

Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of great scenes: the introduction was in tone with the other movies and the only sword fight in the movie (played in shadow... can you say lame?) was pretty good. However, this was the first time I was truly disappointed by Johnny Depp's performance and the overall movie itself.

But that's just me, if the movie made a billion dollars, from a producer's opinion, why should I be right? Nevertheless, this is the shortest movie of all the series, and it's the one that feels the longest. Five times I looked at my watch, which is something that never happened.

Ye be warned, mateys.

It's already been four years since the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, now Jack Sparrow and his matey's are returning for a third sequel with On Strangers Tide. This fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film is of course going to be a bit different from previous Pirates movie as a result of the original trilogy concluded and some characters that are no longer present. This time the charismatic Jack Sparrow is on a new quest this time looking for the fountain of youth, with some old acquaintances of past making an appearance. On Strangers Tide wastes no time and goes straight into action and asks questions later. There is more dialogue and development in the second half of the film than in the first half, where the viewer is thrown into action almost right away. Pirates of the Caribbean movies always take a certain time to really get started but this one is exception to the rule. At 137 minutes, On Strangers Tide is a little shorter than the previous two POTC films, Dead Man's Chest (2006) and At World's End (2007) but its length is still over 2 hours and comparable to The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)'s 143 minutes.

Will and Elisabeth are not in this fourth film but I didn't miss them or at least not as much as I thought I would. While it would have been nice to see Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return (maybe they will in a future Pirates who knows?), this movie kept me plenty interested and those actors not being present did not hurt the movie at all. Johnny Depp remains excellent as Jack Sparrow this fourth time around, as good as ever. Geoffrey Rush was once more terrific as Barbossa. Penelope Cruz was great as Angelica, a former lover of Sparrow and daughter of Blackbeard. Depp and Cruz had on screen chemistry and were believable and worked out well. Ian McShane delivered a solid performance as Blackbeard but I guess I somehow expected him to be a more frightening character perhaps because of the Blackbeard legend. I can understand why some fans may not enjoy this fourth entry as much as the others. Some reviewers complained that the movie has too much action and maybe that's true but I can hardly see a fan of the series hating this one, liking it less or being disappointed perhaps. The fountain of youth was a decent enough storyline and the inclusion of the mermaids was a nice one and was very fitting into this Pirate universe (I still think they don't have fangs). To me, the mermaid attack scene shown in the previews is a highlight of the movie. I was slightly worried about the zombie pirates because I thought it may have been too over the top but that turned out fine as well. I quite liked the concept for this fourth film, the chase for the fountain of youth, and I thought the inclusion of famed pirate Blackbeard and the mermaids were interesting and in a way even breathed new life into the series while still being familiar and true to the previous films.

As for the 3D effect in movie theatres I must say it was surprisingly good, I don't mean amazing or revolutionary but I simply like how the effects didn't overshadow any event or were purely useless. What we have with On Strangers Tide is an effective 3D and that's coming from someone who's not a fan of 3D films. They didn't make the movie about 3D which some modern movies do; this one doesn't rely solely on 3D effects because it doesn't have to. There is a Blu-Ray 3D edition but I prefer to watch my movies without 3D at home so the regular Blu is fine for me.

I like On Strangers Tide and find it to be a very enjoyable Pirates film overall, to me this one is much better than the third film, At World's End. On Strangers Tide may not be the best POTC movie but it has an interesting story, is entertaining and watchable which as far as sequels are concerned is always a good thing. I feel OST is maybe a little less complicated than earlier Pirates film, it's easier to follow that someone who has never seen any POTC films would not be lost. This is Definitely not the best in the series but to me is superior to the previous entry and manages to be a worthwhile sequel that was better than anticipated. It's been four years since the last POTC movie but even with two of the original characters gone, this one manages to be a very good sequel and perhaps, makes way for a new trilogy (there is after all, some talk about making 1 or 2 more movies). Some fans and critics didn't like it but I sure did. 4/5.

Captain Jack is BACK! In a prequel to the entire pirates series that is another trilogy. Does it stand up the the original or is it another flop like part two and three?

I recently watched the original Pirates again before seeing "on stranger tides" just to see if the first still held up, and it did. Two and three not so much. So my expectations were very low for this installment. I can say I enjoyed On Stranger Tides more than the second and third films but does not come anywhere close to the original film.

The plot is following Jack trying to find an imposter who is posing as Jack, he finds out that Barbosa, The Spanish and Blackbeard are all looking for the necessary components to help activate the fountain of youth. Jack ends up being forced into working with both Angelica (Penelope Cruz's character) and Blackbeard to acquire these pieces necessary to activate the fountain of youth.

Now where I live I had to see this in 3-D and it was beautiful, I can honestly say this is the movie that can compete with Avatar for best 3-D. I can say that I missed Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom. Johnny Depp does a great job in this movie playing Captain Jack but I felt the character was even stranger than before and it seemed to take away form the randomness of Jack. I hate Penelope Cruz, she looked really hot in this movie but I can barley understand her when she talks fast and she is far from a good actress. Geoffery Rush was awesome again as Barbosa and the guy who played Blackbeard was amazing (Ian McShane) I really liked his character design and how evil he was.

The thing that was lacking was the pacing was way off, the movie was just all over, the plot was alright but could have been 30 min shorter and still got the job done. The action was good however it was really spread out and in 3-D the dark portions of the movie were hard to see what was going on, everyone I saw it with agreed. I really wanted to like On Stranger Tides, but I think this prequel was really unnecessary. It was still a fun movie, recommended.

C'est tu possible de faire trois bons films et un quatrième assez poche; juste pour garder le staff? Il me semble que Walt Disney font assez d'argent avec leurs manèges. Ils ont accrocher tout le monde avec des films digne de Star Wars et envoie de la gommette juste bonne pour coller des cartes de fête sur le frigo. Je suis désolé pour tout ceux qui sont allez dépenser de l'argent au cinéma pour voir ce navet. J'avais l'intention d'attendre la sortie DVD mais comme je me doutais du cru, je l'ai loué et ça m'a pris deux jours pour essayer de l'écouter, et je ne suis pas encore sûr de tout l'avoir vu. Ménager vos cennes et payer vous les Bagnoles 2!!!
J'ai mis une étoile parce que je ne pouvais pas en mettre 0.