Wezzo's DVD Reviews > Pirates Of The Caribbean: CE

Wezzo's DVD Reviews > Movies > Pirates Of the Caribbean: Collector's Edition


Pirates Of the Caribbean: Collector's Edition

Main Feature:
Pirates Of The Caribbean was the surprise summer hita t the box office this year. Starring Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, it's a brilliant adventure tale of pirates (obviously!), love, horror, tradition, and violence. It's really very good and deserves its surprising success. The only real fault is it drags a little towards the end; it IS a little too long at 2hrs 20mins. 1hr40mins would be much better, but oh well. If you get bored easily, you could watch it in two sittings.
But I'm nitpicking; I digress. It's a very entertaining film, and blends every genre you could want - and more - into one film. It's fairly obvious that its main focus is adventure, but there's certainly drama, horror, comedy and romance in there a lot too.
Finally, for those of you who don't know the plot, here you go, from www.imdb.com (writer was Anonymous):
This roller coaster tale teams a young man, Will Turner, with an unlikely ally in rogue pirate Jack Sparrow. Together, they must battle a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elizabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a thrilling, climactic confrontation on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fiece mortal combat, Will and Jack attempt to recapture The Black Pearl ship, save the British navy, and relinquish a fortune in forbidden treasure thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.
A brilliant film with few shortcomings. 10/10

Packaging:
A lovely snapper case holding two DVD's in a flipper-style, like Family Guy. The discs are held brilliantly - unfortuantely the only inserts are adverts; no booklets or chapter index. Ah well, can't have it all. It's certainly presented well. 8/10

Audio:
DD5.1, THX, DTS.. all those great soundtracks. the movie never sounded so good. Perfect. 10/10

Video:
2.35:1 Widescreen. Nice clear and grainless picture, but for some reason mine was flickery near the end.. I'll assume I got a dud and give it 9/10.

Price:
RRP is £22.99 - ridiculous, really - but most places you can get it for £14-18. 7/10

Extras:
Wow, what a collection. I still haven't had the time to see all of them, but here's a rundown:
Disc 1
  • Audio Commentaries: Wowza. there's not one, not two or even three commentaries here, but FOUR. FOUR! Two run the full length of the film, whilst two are selected scenes.
    Commentary #1 is from director Gore Verbinski and actor Johnny Depp. Theirs is probably the best commentary, and their chit-chat is great to listen to. there are a few silent spots, but nothing too bad. Very good.
    Commentaries #2 and 3 is the selected scene commentaries. 17 scenes are commented on by actress Kiera Knightley and actor Jack Davenport. 11 other scenes are commented on by producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Kiera is a total joy to listen to; witty, entertaining, lovely - she is probably the single best commentator. Jack Davenport is also a good commentator, and in his commentary with Knightley, is the more informative of the two, though a little less entertaining.
    Commentary #4 is the second of two full-length commentaries from writers Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert. They are certainly very informative, and bring up many anecdotes and tidbits, and give a good insight into the writing process, and the character development.
  • DVD-ROM: Watch the film with the script or 200-odd storyboards by its side. Very, very interesting; especially the script.

    Disc 2
  • "An Epic At Sea" documentary: This starts off somewhat promotionally, but quickly starts into providing some more important information. The first part of the documentary focuses on the film's problems with water shooting, finding locations and essentially, taking over most of St. Vincent. The documentary also covers the film's attempts to try and be historically accurate in terms of look and props, casting, weapons, the film's ships, make-up and costumes, stunts/action, visual FX and finally, the film's massive premiere. A very instigtful, entertaining and interesting documentary; the perfect length, too - not too short and to the point; and not too lengthy and drawn-out. Sections can be viewed separately, or there is a "play all" option.
  • Diaries: A variety of items. Jerry Bruckheimer's photography on the set is avaliable in this section, along with a ten-minute video diary of one of the background pirates on the set; and finally "Ship diary", involving a real ship crew explaining how the ship used in the film was prepared. Excellent stuff.
  • Fly On The Set: 5 5-minute featurettes showing what's going on on the set during 5 scenes.
  • Blooper Reel: A brilliant 3 minute reel of goofs and fluff-ups.
  • 20 Minutes of 19 Deleted Scenes: Mostly scene extensions, but some high-quality material is offered here.
  • Moonlight Serenade Scene Progression: the progression from actor's face to 'true selves' shown step-by-step. Interesting, though short (6 mins) item.
  • Below Deck: featurette on the Disneyland ride the film is based on.
  • Image gallery
  • DVD-ROM: Many great features, including a way to 'Pirate-ize' your pictures, and another featurette about the ride. There's also weblinks and an image gallery.

    So, overall, the extras are just brilliant. Unfortuantely there's only English subtitles on the main feature, though. Awesome collection. 10/10

    Overall:
    The best film of 2003 on one of the best sets of 2003, highly recommended. 92%

    Average::
    90%

    Family-Friendly Rating:
    Teen due to a lot of moderate horror and violence, and a very small amount of mild bad language.

    ~Wesley Mead, aka Wezzo

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