I still hadn't seen Gore Verbinski's (The Ring) 'Pirates of the Caribbean- the Curse of the Black Pearl' in its entirety this until last night, and the film has been out since last August. Yet, because it was the last week of term, and I couldn't be bothered to teach an annoying lesson of PSHE, I decided to let my year 8 tutor group watch this, and finished it off over the next few days. They all loved it, most of them had seen it before, and because I didn't really follow it I took it home and watched it again. Never having been a big fan of Disney films with cliched plots and lots of CGI I had decided to give it a miss when it came out at the Cinema, yet when I did actually watch it I was very pleasantly surprised. 'Pirates' to use its shorthand term, is a damn good film. You can't really write a review of it without using the term 'Swashbuckling' (what does that mean anyway?), it is a fine adventure, funny, easy to watch, an ideal film for just collapsing in front of after a hard week's work, or to keep twenty seven 12 and 13 year olds quiet for a couple of hours.

What makes the film, for me and for most people, is the character of 'Captain' Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp. Last Friday morning one of my colleagues Kate came bursting into my office screaming 'Oh my God, I met Johnny Depp last night!' apparantly her and her 'partner' were out in a pub near Oxford when in walked Johnny and his entourage, they are making a film at Blenheim Palace at the moment. Kate said he was a great guy, and happily chatted to all and sundry, signing autographs and generally being pleasant. Depp is somewhat of an acting enigma. He clearly possesses an abundance of talent, and probably should be a whole lot more well known than he is (ie on par with Messrs Cruise and Pitt) yet he has been involved in few massive blockbusters. My favourite Depp performance before 'Pirates' is not in a film but in the 'Fast Show' special when he wrote personally to Paul Whitehouse asking if he could have a cameo role. The 'Suits You' scene with Johnny trying desperately not to laugh is brilliant, showing his very Anglophile sense of humour, something he hones to near perfection in his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack Sparrow is a semi drunken, camp, pretentious tosser, in the likeable and roguish sense of the word, a bit like Richard E Grant's Withnail. Depp modelled his mannerisms on Keith Richards, and this works excellently. His accent is pure estuary English, his one liners and comebacks superb. One of my favourite Sparrow comebacks is fighting with Orlando Bloom's Will Turner, Turner warns him 'I have been practising with these swords for three hours each day!' to which Sparrow replies, deadpan 'You need to find yourself a girl mate!' Sparrow is clearly incredibly vain and rather too fond of the Rum. His costume, jewellery, colourful bandanas and eye make up shows him up for what he is. An arrogant but cheeky ponce. Brilliant other lines include 'You can't open the door, the key's run off!' and 'But why's the rum gone??' Depp is brilliant as this character, and one wonders how much of it is his own creation rather than the Director's.