AT first glance, it seems like a pretty good deal. You put down your money — still less than $10 in most cities — and in return you get two and a half hours of spirited swashbuckling, with an all-star three-way battle of the cheekbones (Orlando Bloom vs.

Keira Knightley vs. Johnny Depp) and some extra-slimy computer-generated imagery thrown in at no additional cost. But there's a catch, as there usually is. Is not just a movie. It's a glistening, sushi-grade chunk of franchise entertainment, which means that maximal enjoyment of it comes with certain obligations.

It is the second episode in what will be at least a trilogy — the third installment is scheduled for release next summer — and full appreciation of its whirligig plot will depend on thorough acquaintance with the first picture, conveniently available for purchase on DVD. And since 'Dead Man's Chest' brazenly dispenses with the convention of an ending — it's pretty much all middle — you will, by virtue of buying that ticket, have committed yourself to buying another one a year from now if you're the least bit curious about how the whole thing turns out. By then, chances are good that you will have forgotten most of what happened in 'Dead Man's Chest,' so you'll have another disc to add to the shopping cart. The question is: Is it worth it? The same thought probably crosses the minds of Disney theme-park vacationers as they endure endless lines for the ride on which the movies are based, but the notion is quickly banished because nobody likes to feel like a sucker.

By a rational calculation of time and money — yours and the untold millions invested by Disney, the producer Jerry Bruckheimer and others — the answer is probably no. But hey, this isn't about that, right? It's about fun. You're there to have fun. Fun for the family. Fun for the kids. Fun for everyone.

Action-packed sequel has lots of violence, scary moments. Read Common Sense Media's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest review, age rating,. Film locations for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), at St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Windward Islands, and Domenica. Driver for hp deskjet 3050a all-in-one j611 series.

So shut up and have fun. Johnny Depp returns as the pirate Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.' Credit Peter Mountain/Walt Disney Studios And you probably will, even if it's hard to shake the feeling that you've been bullied into it. Gore Verbinski, the director, has an appropriate sense of mischief, as a well as a gift, nearly equaling those of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, for integrating CGI seamlessly into his cinematic compositions. What is curious about the recent crop of high-tech blockbusters is how seriously they take themselves, and unlike, say, 'Dead Man's Chest' cannot be called pretentious.

It makes no claims to being about good and evil, the difficulty of saving the world in the modern era, or the inner lives of any of its characters. Advertisement Instead, it sends Elizabeth Swann (Ms. Knightley) and Will Turner (Mr. Bloom), their wedding day ruined in an opening sequence that seems to pay tribute to the old Guns N' Roses 'November Rain' video, on a search for the pirate captain Jack Sparrow (Mr. Jack, as usual, finds himself in all kinds of trouble, pursued not only by agents of the British crown, but also by an undead, squid-faced mariner, the famous Davy Jones, who commands a ghoulish crew of half-human, half-aquatic creatures. These sailors are like the cast of 'SpongeBob SquarePants' — or the menu at a seafood restaurant —come to life: Night of the Living Bouillabaisse. One of them, played by Stellan Skarsgard with a starfish embedded in his face, is Will's long-lost father, a development that adds a gelatinous morsel of father-son pathos to the stew of plots and subplots cooked up by the screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.