10 Films That Don't Live Up To Great Premises

4. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

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Buena Vista Pictures

No one expected much from a movie based on a Disneyland ride. Today, we wouldn't even shrug our shoulders at such a concept, with rides and even board games serving as the source material for our entertainment. Even if you never went on the Pirates of the Caribbean, you got the idea: Pirates, lost treasure, evil curse, et cetera.

What one never saw coming was Johnny Depp. The actor was already known for his eccentricities, but he took what we assumed was a paycheck and turned it into one of the most amusing characters in recent history. Based on Keith Richards, Depp takes what would have been a standard swashbuckling hero and made him a, for lack of a better word, scallywag.

He was so entertaining, one strains his thoughts trying to recall who was given leading man duties (someone named Orlando Bloom, apparently). Unfortunately, Depp cut himself on set and Disney smelled money in the water.

Dead Man's Chest, the first in a neverending series of sequels, announced to audiences the franchise was leaning in the wrong direction. While it had some good ideas such a casting Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, it spent its two and a half hour runtime world building and adding a complex mythology no one particularly wanted. What we wanted were more shenanigans. Disney completely misread the room.

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Kenny Hedges is carbon-based. So I suppose a simple top 5 in no order will do: Halloween, Crimes and Misdemeanors, L.A. Confidential, Billy Liar, Blow Out He has his own website - thefilmreal.com - and is always looking for new writers with differing views to broaden the discussion.