elfs | Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides

We received special dispensation to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, which was showing in the Disney AMC theater just outside the park. I ended up chaperoning 11 kids to go see it.

It's a serviceable film. It's not great. Johnny Depp is a professional, but he hates doing anything twice. His disappointment at doing a fourth film is never obvious, but still you can tell his soul isn't into being Jack Sparrow one. more. time.

Things go boom under Jerry Bruckheimer's consummate expertise, the costumes are gorgeous, the settings amazing, but there are so many plot holes. It's a stupid pot. When Barbarossa reaches the vessel of Ponce De Leon, where are the English? How does Jack escape from the English the next morning? None of this is explained. The two mermaids we see are very pretty, in a youthful and Caucasian way.

This is a movie you have to see only if you had to see the third one. And not even then. It's super pretty, as only multi-hundred-million dollar budgets can provide. But that's about it.