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Growing up, I had an aversion to amusement park rides. They were noisy and expensive, and I had a feeling they'd make me sick to my stomach. After college, a friend talked me into riding a roller coaster for the first time. Lo and behold, I loved it.

Similarly, I have been dreading this idea of films "based on" amusement park rides. Disney has been hunting for ways to keep their vision fresh and engaging, and this idea smacks of desperation. But when I saw the cast lined up for Pirates of the Caribbean—Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Jonathan Pryce, and Orlando "Legolas" Bloom—I consented to sit through a screening.

There was good reason for trepidation: there hasn't been a decent pirate movie in decades. But five minutes into the film, my apprehension walked the plank. Shiver me timbers, Pirates of the Caribbean is fun and funny. Echoing the ambition, mischief, boyish glee, and whimsical wit of '80s adventure films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gremlins, The Goonies, and The Princess Bride, Gore Verbinski has concocted a film that is as promising for Disney's future as it is nostalgic for the great films of the genre. Pirates boasts an Oscar-worthy performance by Johnny Depp (his funniest, in fact), some impressive special effects (truly astonishing in the film's frenzied finale), and one of the funniest and most unpredictable adventure scripts to come along in a good while.

In a small harbor town, the governor (Pryce) is trying to match his beautiful and spirited daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightly) with a decorated military officer (Jack Davenport). But Elizabeth's heart belongs to Will Turner, a young blacksmith (Bloom) whose past is lost in a fog of shipwrecks and pirates. Elizabeth and Will find their future threatened when the legendary pirates of a ship called the Black Pearl invade the town. The pirates, a host of decomposing zombies, are hunting for a magical treasure that can break their terrible and deforming curse. When Elizabeth is kidnapped, Will reluctantly joins forces with a loony renegade pirate named Jack Sparrow (Depp) in a desperate attempt to try and rescue the spirited damsel in distress. But the snarling ill-tempered Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) has plans for his beautiful prisoner.

Some film critics in the religious press are offering early raves. Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) calls it "the kind of rousing, swashbuckling adventure that hasn't been seen since Errol Flynn last swung a cutlass."

Bob Smithouser (Focus on the Family) agrees that it "could've been a lazy attempt to capitalize on a brand name, but it actually delivers the thrills, laughs and romance audiences demand from a summer popcorn flick." He adds a caution about the film's heavy doses of "creepy violence."

The critic at Movieguide writes, "Despite some pagan, occult elements, Pirates…is a swashbuckling jolly good time at the movies, with some positive moral and redemptive themes." However, he seems to contradict himself by concluding, "The pagan, occult aspect…spoils its moral, redemptive elements." He adds that the film's fairy-tale-variety "curse" will be controversial for "Bible-believing Christians and Jews." (Non-Bible-believing Christians will apparently not be bothered.)

My full review is at Looking Closer.

Many will assume that 28 Days Later is just a nasty horror film. But many critics in the mainstream and religious press are discovering that Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) had a lot on his mind while he assembled this low-budget, high-tension thriller about zombies and the apocalypse.

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47