You won't need a bottle of rum to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; especially if you've experienced the Disneyland theme-park ride that inspired it. There's a galleon's worth of fun in watching Johnny Depp's androgynous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow; a roguish pirate who could pass for the illegitimate spawn of rockers Keith Richards and Chrissie Hynde. Depp gets all the good lines and steals the show; recruiting Orlando Bloom (a blacksmith and expert swordsman) and Keira Knightley (a lovely governor's daughter) on an adventurous quest to recapture the notorious Black Pearl; a ghost ship commandeered by Jack's nemesis Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush); a mutineer desperate to reverse the curse that left him and his (literally) skeleton crew in a state of eternal; undead damnation. Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring) repeats the redundant mayhem that marred his debut film Mouse Hunt; but with the writers of Shrek he's made Pirates into a special-effects thrill-ride that plays like a Halloween party on the open seas. Aye; matey; we've come a long way since Jason and the Argonauts! --Jeff Shannon