Episode 33 of the Pirate History Podcast, “Payment”, is here! Get listening.

Re-watch your favorite Pirates of the Caribbean films with this drink named after the second installment. The Dead Man’s Chest has now been added to Swashbuckling Drinks. This drink is truly awesome, with a perfect blend of sweet and bitter flavors.

This week, I was finally able to see the newest Pirates installment. I will attempt to do this review without spoilers though chances are if you’re frequenting this site, you’ve seen the film already.

I did enjoy it, as a majority of people did, but it had its drawbacks. There were new and interesting elements, but there was something that felt recycled about it. There does seem to be a formula that POTC movies follow and this movie is no exception. There is some sort of curse or treasure that has to be pursued by no less than 3-4 separate interested parties (Jack Sparrow always being one all by himself) against the backdrop of a villain or villains with mythological attributes. The predictable nature of this formula made the movie almost, well, predictable. That being said, I enjoyed the back history of Salazar and Jack, discovering origins for things like Jack’s Compass, and bringing the series back towards the first trilogy of movies with the plot. The look of Salazar and his crew is really neat and when you find out why they look that way, it’s actually a little horrifying.

Really, the film maintains the humor and atmosphere we’ve come to expect from POTC. I did however feel that while Jack Sparrow provides a lot of comic relief for the film, that this is almost his entire purpose. I think as a character that he actually degenerated during the course of the films in complexity. In the first POTC, he is certainly goofy (and this nature really sold his character, making him an icon), but underneath that is a formidable swordsman and fighter as well as a schemer who can plot and plan successfully on many levels. He is a worthy adversary and not someone to cross, even with that characteristic hangover swagger. But since the first film, his schemes and planning more often fail him in the series while other characters seem to benefit more. Barbossa, for example since coming back to life at the end of Dead Man’s Chest, comes across as far more intelligent and successful than Jack Sparrow for the remainder of the series. Jack simply seems hapless and sometimes lucky based on chance versus his own skill.

Many of you may disagree, and that’s fine. Overall, the public likes this movie and as far as the Pirates movies go, there is no greater disparity between the critics and the fans on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics gave this movie an all time low 29% rating while fans gave it a 69%, which beats out On Stranger Tides by more than 10% and is practically on par with the other films. While On Stranger Tides has its own merits, I have always considered it something of a black sheep in the series, so this makes sense.  The film has surpassed the $500 million mark worldwide, which is a financial success already and this reflects how many people just love this franchise, regardless of what critics say.

There is a lot of speculation about whether this is the last film or just the first of a new trilogy. The film does seem to wrap up a couple loose ends  in a big way and sets the stage for it being the conceivable end (I don’t want to introduce spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the film, you’ll just have to and if you have seen it, you’ll know what I mean). However, there is a scene after the credits that seems to leave an opening, so who knows? Johnny Depp has said that he’ll play Jack Sparrow for as long as fans want him to. And while I hate to believe it’s all about money, Disney will certainly find reasons to make more POTC films as long as they keep generating returns as even this 5th installment has.

In a quick and tragic turn of events for our family, my wife’s father Chip passed away this morning, on Memorial Day. Chip was a man whom I admired a great deal, both in his dedication to his friends and family, as well as his other passions in life.

Chip handcrafted all of the wooden treasure chests I showcase on MyPirateBar. He took up woodworking as a hobby later in life and clearly had a great talent for it. He started his shop, Bourbon Brothers Woodworking, in the basement of the family home. He brilliantly utilized wood pallets, discarded at the printing company where he also worked full-time, and turned them into true works of art. He started with simple shelves and crates but over time his projects included finely detailed keepsake boxes, toychests for his grandchildren, wooden toys, and the truly awesome treasure chests you see displayed. He developed some great aging and wood-burning techniques that you can see applied in his pieces.

Chip was also a great connoisseur of bourbon (and a good cigar to go with it) and helped develop my interest, giving my love of rum some steep competition.

It had been my hope to one day be plugging for his Etsy store when he might finally get to selling and sharing his work with a larger audience. Now, his pieces will serve as a memorial to a man well-loved.

This amazing sixth-scale figure of Captain Jack Sparrow from Dead Men Tell No Tales from Sideshow Collectibles is available for pre-order. For a piddling bounty, everyone’s favorite pirate and connoisseur of rum can be yours! Check out the link for a detailed photo gallery.