Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest [2-Disc Special Edition]

Great fun, but it really is too long...
The third might be cooler with a spectacular battle between Davy Jones and capt. Barbossa, since they were both memorable villains excellently casted and acted by amazing actors.

Relies too heavily on our affection for the first movie? What a great way to put it.

We just saw this one on the Disney Wonder cruise ship on their big-screen theater, and even in the coolest digital big-screen presentation I've ever seen, it was still, as Anduril said, way too long. I would have cut that whole bit with the headhunters and the giant ball cages. It's great for visual effects and humorous for Capt. Sparrow speaking a conglomeration of made-up languages, but it really had very little to do with the story.

Anybody else reminded of the Matrix Trilogy in the way Disney is handling this franchise?

The Matrix trilogy? No, I don’t see it that way because we can already tell Pirates will complete itself whereas the Matrix just left you with more questions to be answered. Besides, I don’t see how anything can be as disappointing as “Matrix: Revolutions”.

I can’t say I’m with James and John on this film as I really found it to be everything I would expect from a summer blockbuster. John’s review does make valid points and I agree that there are many that feel the same about it as he does. However, for me, there was plenty of action, laughs and mild drama to please the senses and it certainly is a “put the brain” aside and just go with it movie. I will agree that it was a bit long and could have had some fat cut, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it for everything it had to offer, as it never failed to be a fun movie. I honestly don’t feel it was any better or any worse than its predecessor was.

Tim =)

I wasn't so much comparing the storylines but more so the structure of each franchise.

First entry in each series proved to be massive hits that had stories that could function as stand alone but left outs for future installments should they become mega successes that we now know them to be. In The Matrix Neo had become the one, but he hadn't fulfilled "the prophecy" yet. In Pirates they included the scene after the credits of the monkey with the gold coin.

The second and third acts were to be shot back to back.

As John mentioned in his review, "Dead Man's Chest" took "Curse of the Black Pearl" and pretty much amplified it. This is exactly what I felt they did with Reloaded. An overabundance of special effects, less coherent story, more Agent Smith, more overly serious one liners from Neo and so on.

Thats not to say I didn't have fun watching Dead Man's Chest or Reloaded, but my expectations were far from being met.

**on a sidenote

I think the Matrix sequels make more sense than some people think. The wikipedia sections of the movies do a nice job of answering the most frequent questions. Most just don't have the interest or motivation to find the answers, which speaks volumes as to how much of a letdown the movies were.

Well, if you’re looking at it that way, then there are plenty of sequel films throughout film culture that could be placed in the same light. It would really be unfair to compare just the Matrix and Pirates for their franchise structure when so many films before it have done the same. It isn’t as if either film is doing anything original when it comes to padding the franchise.

However, there is the obvious difference between both films. One film asks you to bring the brain along and think where the other says to leave it at the door and enjoy the ride. And it isn’t hard to figure out which is which. Nevertheless, the Matrix is the bigger disappointment mainly because it challenged the audience’s thoughts but just delivered more “what if” questions and never really closed the story.

“Dead Man’s Chest” is a sequel film that I expected to deliver more bells and whistles as most blockbuster, sequel films do. I walked into the film knowing this regardless if the franchise was spoon feeding me--and they were--but I had no qualms with this because I expected to see more eye-candy, over pacing, intensity, humor and swashbuckling action than the first film. It may have been a big extension of the first movie and the story may have been less than deserving, but it was a film that didn’t ask much for a thinking cap and that suited me fine, as I was not expecting anything less. I mean, the film is based off a silly ride at Disneyland, so do you think we should all take that serious?

Tim =)

I loved this movie, but that's not the point of this comment. I found an easter egg on disc 2. On the "more" menu, near the bottom, near "Register your DVD", there was a tuft of grass that can be highlighted. It will show you to a short about the "coconut man", a man that was hired to cut down coconuts on set so no one would be injured by a falling coconut. For the life of me, however, I can't access the menu item from my DVD remote, just on my pc by hovering the mouse...

I put the comment here, because I can't find the submission area for eggs...

I'm dumb.

Here's the correct info.

Entry On Disc 2, highlight "Jerry Bruckheimer - A producer's photo diary", press Left three times. This should highlight some of the grass. Press OK to watch a clip of the Coconut Man. Submitted by Mortug

There's a few more, just do a search engine query.