Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

This 2-1/3 hour sequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl is action-packed and filled with superb character interaction between Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Nightley, Bill Nighey, and many more. The costumes and script are brilliant and Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow is thoroughly intelligent, spirited, and artfully comic in his role as the perpetual scoundrel. Physical humor and action in this movie abound, such as when Depp has been tied to a spit and must extricate himself (in a far more flamboyant fashion than we or he would expect). I've never seen an extended chase and swordfight scene on a runaway mill wheel before. My favorite scene is where Nightley predicts to Depp that he will face a character test where he must show he is a good man at heart, and he will make that choice because he wants to know badly "what it tastes like" (as she engagingly teases him). He gets to find out what it tastes like in the first of several plot twists that resolve the current story line -- and set the stage for the next. (Pirates 3 is due out May 2007.) Five stars.