62. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) - Gore Verbinski

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) - Gore VerbinskiPirate Jack Sparrow sets out to save a governor's daughter from fellow pirates, with the hopes that it will give him the opportunity to regain the ship that was stolen from him. Pirates are cool. What boy doesn't grow up wanting to be a pirate or a ship's captain? Who hasn't travelled the ride at Disney and not been in awe of pirates? Pirates of the Caribbean was the first movie in years that really showed how cool Pirates could be (apart from bits of Spielberg's under rated Hook). And where in the hell did Johnny Depp pull the character of Jack Sparrow from? The character is completely Depp's work, he plays a drunk rock star pirate which incredibly works so well. He delivers his lines in such a unique and offbeat way you fall in love with the character straight away. A testament to his performance is that he won an Oscar nomination for it, something that is virtually unheard of for a Disney adventure movie. Every movie like this needs a great villain and Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbosa is just as good as Depp's Sparrow. He plays a cursed ship's captain who can no longer feel or taste anything. He wants nothing more than just to be able to drink his rum and once again enjoy the taste of the apple. One of my favourite scenes is the revelation to Kiera Knightley's character of the curse and the sadness and longing that's in Rush's eyes as he watches her enjoy the taste of an apple. He is a great sympathetic villain. The skeleton pirates are great and instantly I was transported back to watching the great Ray Harryhausen flicks like Jason and the Argonauts, just this time with computer graphics and that didn't make them less awesome. You see them slay some humans just like in the Argonauts. Pirates is such a fun and entertaining movie. It has great sets, fantastic performances (also from the lesser characters such as and each invidiual pirate). The scores is great, the movie never takes itself too seriously but also doesn't turn into a camp fest and it's got Jack Sparrow, sorry... Captain Jack Sparrow.