Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Ian McShane really does need to find the Fountain of Youth!

Not only is Disney in negotiation with Johnny Depp to play Captain Jack Sparrow for a fifth time but there is speculation that they are considering making a sixth back to back with the fifth! Some pundits think that Mr Depp has played the Pirate a little too often as it is. The first of the franchise The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) is still the best and most enjoyable of the swashbuckling yarns to date but On Stranger Tides (2011) is somewhat back on form following the disappointing Dead Mans Chest (2006) and the complete catastrophe that was At Worlds End (2007). Maybe it’s down to a fresh director at the helm; forgive the pun, so instead of Gore Verbinski who has moved on to direct a computer-animated western comedy, we have Rob Marshall at the tiller, sorry another pun, whose last film Nine (2009) only redeeming factor was that Nicole Kidman had a part in it!

Now there's a better looking Pirate.

Loosely based on Tim Powers 1987 historical fantasy novel, Pirates 4 has somewhat more of a coherent plot than the previous two. It involves discovering the Fountain of External Youth which is located somewhere on the Spanish Main me hearties (that’s pirate talk, I’ve seen to many of these films?). Although it’s involves the normal struggle between Sparrow and his archrival Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) into the mix comes the evil Captain Blackbeard superbly played by Ian McShane and his buccaneering daughter Angelica, the lovely Penelope Cruz. Also just to complicate matters the King of Spain wants a look in, or to be precise wants to stop the King of England getting hands on the linctus of youth for some reason that I never really understood. Now listen carefully I’m not going to explain this twice: to enable the Fountain of External Youth to be found you need a map, two silver chalices and a mermaid’s tear, simple init?

Maybe the franchise is going on to long, but I for one really enjoyed this latest offering, sometimes its nice just to sit back and enjoy a complete load of nonsense and while Johnny Depp remains on top form I may be tempted to see Pirates 5?