The fourth outing of Disney's popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise takes on a fountain of youth storyline while focusing upon it's favorite character once again: Captain Jack Sparrow. Johnny Depp returns as the charismatic buccaneer while a new batch of characters are introduced including the baddie Blackbeard (brought to life by Ian McShane).
Compared to the previous three films, On Stranger Tides is not the strongest in the franchise. It's run time is just a bit too long, an issue that could have been resolved with about 15 minutes of extra editing to remove filler scenes which causes the story to unnecessarily drag along. Besides that, though, On Stranger Tides is a great addition to the film series and a nice jumping off point for future projects. Wonderful, sweeping cinematography and a vivid score accompany fantastic and whimsical performances that made this one of the most well received films of the summer.
Special Features:
Bloopers of the Caribbean - Behind-the-scenes blooper reels are always a fun addition to home releases. Unfortunately, in this case, it is the only real featurette included in the 2-disc set. For a billion dollar grossing film, and the fourth installment of a mega-franchise, I expect way more than one meager gag reel. To access the detailed SFX featurettes, interviews, etc you apparently have to garner the $60 5-disc collector's set.
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) crosses paths with a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz), and he’s not sure if it’s love–or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, directed by Rob Marshall and starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush, Kevin McNally, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Sam Claflin, Stephen Graham, Yuki Matsuzaki and Gemma Ward, is available for purchase on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download today October 18th, 2011.