PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES (2011) **1/2 This isn't my favorite installment-that is still definitely the first one-but in many ways it's the best. The plot is still tangled but is more accessible, the action is still a little bit too much Indiana Jones-everything happening constantly-but the acting is really, really good, all around. So good that Johnny Depp doesn't entirely dominate, even though he's got that Captain Jack Sparrow character down flat. He's got it perfect, every second, the best most extravagant bits overdone beautifully and the best lines (maybe not quite so many in this one) delivered with the perfection of panache. But he can't steal the screen so easily from Penélope Cruz-who is way more convincing as a pirate than Keira Knightley as anything-and Geoffrey Rush delivers his best, most alternately annoying and admirable, performance of the series. Ian McShane's introductory scene is incredible, though he seems to lose a little bit of something along the way; and Keith Richards actually does some acting in this one: he's a good actor, actually, but it was more fun last time when he was just being Keith. There is a confidence to this film, that they're making movies that will be admired and enjoyed in years to come, and some kind of wanton professionalism that makes it happen.
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