Kentish Express Ashford & District - What's On
FILM OF THE WEEK:
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (12A)
The third and fourth voyages of the Pirates Of The Caribbean saga, At World’s End and On Stranger Tides, sprung leaks in their ramshackle screenplays and capsized under the weight of feverish expectation. After a six-year hiatus for long overdue repairs, the blockbusting series sets sail with two new directors at the helm – Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg – and Johnny Depp swabbing the decks in his familiar guise as salty seadog Jack Sparrow. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a marked improvement and anchors the outlandish action to solid performances from two charismatic young actors, Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites. Depp continues to ply his comic talents with wide-eyed gusto and Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who collected an Oscar for No Country For Old Men, is a lip-smacking phantasmagorical villain from the watery underworld. The return of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and another original character is misjudged, and the 129-minute running time feels excessive. A superfluous cameo for Paul Mccartney as a fellow pirate also should have walked the gangplank. Twelve-year-old Henry Turner (Lewis Mcgowan) stows away on the wreck of the Flying Dutchman to be reunited with his father Will (Orlando Bloom). “This is my fate. You must let me go,” pleads Will, who is condemned to serve as captain of the watery vessel for eternity... unless his son can track down the mythical Trident of Poseidon. Nine years later, Will (now played by Brenton Thwaites) searches for the artefact on the island of St Martin in the Caribbean, where he meets plucky astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), who is labelled a witch because of her love of science. She possesses a diary penned by Galileo Galilei, which contains clues to the hiding place of the trident. The duo join forces and cross paths with Jack Sparrow (Depp) who is being pursued by spectral pirate Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem), who intends to exact revenge.