"Aye aye cap'n!", "Women and children first!" and that sort of thing.

Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest

A worthy successor to "Black Pearl". It managed to capture most of the charm, wit and swashbuckling action of this first film without overdoing any elements.

First, of course, Captain Jack Sparrow is in classic form, retaining and even improving on his style from the first film. Almost any time he was on screen, a laugh was guaranteed. His "escape" from the cannibals is easily one of the best scenes in the film and had the entire audience in stitches.

Going on opening day, the theater was packed with the standard assortment of nerds and squeeling fangirls. The objects of their adoration, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom both live up to their hype and deliver some excellent acting. Kiera Knightely also improves on the character of Swan, even though half of the audience wanted to kill her at the end.

Davie Jones was a fun villain, on the same level as Barbossa. The CGI on him was topnotch and the actor really came through for a great performance. He was intimidating, yet calm and collected. And damn, he knows how to make an entrance.

His minions on the other hand range from interesting and cool (hermit crab guy) to just stupid (hammerhead guy). It was really great to meet Will's father and learn that he's really a good guy. Hopefully, he'll be set free in the third film.

The sword fights managed to mix in just the right amount of over-the-top flair. The three-way battle between Will, Jack and Norrington is alot of fun to watch and keep track of who's fighting who. The reactions to the battle inside the wheel were hilarious. The battles with the Kraken got a bit tiring after awhile but the final battle was alot of fun to watch.

Alot of the charm comes out through various one-liners throughout the movie. The parts where Jack offers the undead monkey as payment and where he prances about, lording the Jar o' Dirt over Davy Jones were priceless and got a good amount of laughs.

I liked the ending for the most part. A morbid cliffhangar as Jack seemingly goes down with the ship and Barbossa returns from out of nowhere were shocking but make the audience really look forward to the final part of the trilogy.

Rating: A-

The surprise movie hit keeps going with a well-done sequel. It's going to be a long wait for At World's End.