PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN : DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

Movie Review #3085 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN : DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES.

Fifth installment of the Pirates franchise that was originally based on the Disneyland theme park ride. Like the previous sequels, this one moves further away from the rollicking boys-own pirates-on-the-high-seas tale and further into the supernatural realm with Jack Sparrow and Capt Barbosa going up against new bad guy Capt Salazar, suitably portrayed by usual bad guy actor Javier Bardem.

The Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann pairing is reduced to cameo along with another aging rock star appearing as another of Capt Sparrow's rellies (won't spoil by disclosing!). Formula is much the same as before and the CGI is up yet another notch if you can keep up with manic screen activity, which was certainly a challenge for these 57 year old eyes.

No real further character development from the mainstays but a few loose ends tied up and more revelations as to who's kid is whose.

Usual happy ending as Jack and the boy's sail off into the sunset with a short post-credit scene that prepares us for the fact that there will be a sixth installment. I'm reliably informed by IMDB though that this is likely to be the last so expect a few deceasings I think.

At 2 1/2 hrs, is long and gets a bit tedious in parts but remains true to the franchise genre even if words like horse, flog and dead do easily come to mind. 7/10.