Regent Reviewer; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Stewart Sutherland

Everyone’s favourite pirate, Jack Sparrow, wait, sorry; Captain Jack Sparrow makes his first appearance at The Regent Cinema returning in “On Stranger Tides”, the fourth instalment in the multimillion dollar Pirates of the Caribbean franchise from Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Now the question everyone wants to know is; If is On Stranger Tides a tidal wave of success or is the series sinking? Let us at The Regent help you out with that one!

Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) is in jolly old London when he cross paths with Angelica (Penélope Cruz) a notorious con-artist and old flame from Jacks past. Angelica is on the quest to obtain fabled Fountain of Youth with Jacks help, whether he likes it or not. Jack joins Angelicas crew on the Queen Anne’s Revenge the momentous pirate ship led by the legendary pirate Black Beard!

Although they aren’t the only faction after the mythical fountain, the British have a crew led by Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), although leading the race is the Spanish!

That’s our story! It’s amazing that all of these films are based on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at the Disneyland theme park. Although this film is loosely based on the 1988 pirate novel “On Stranger Tides”, by Tim Powers. The novel's protagonist is a pirate named Jack, but his character is significantly different from Jack Sparrow.

Memoirs of a Geisha director Rob Marshall takes over the director’s chair from Gore Verbinski (previously directing the last 3 instalments and most recently Rango) and possibly one the main benefits coming out other movie is its running time! On Stranger Tides clocks in at 2 Hour 16 minutes, being the shortest instalment in the series, whereas the worst offender is Worlds End; 2 Hours 50 minutes.

One of the biggest gripes the big fans Pirates fans will have is the lacking presence from Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly, in this instance it actually makes this movie a refreshing change of pace from the past movies, no bickering couple nipping our heads! Our replacements for the beloved comes in the form of English born actor Sam Claflin, a young missionary who is a man of the faith and of course the sharp tongued Penelope Cruz brings a strong female presence which even leaves Jack speechless!

The mighty Ian McShane comes in filling the sea boots of the mightiest pirate of all time; Black Beard. His character will stand out as the mightiest villain across the series. His appearance everything from the burning beard to his supernatural powers – You can’t beat Black Beard!

The film will delight all audiences with entertaining action sequences accompanied by the classic Pirates score from Hans Zimmer. The instrumentals will leave your hair stand on ends as you see Jack swash and buckle his way to the fountain!

This film comes highly recommended if you felt the last movie was underwhelming, this will right that wrong! If that has not convinced you, we’re showing it for £4 this week at 1PM, can’t get better than that right?