Pirates of the Caribbean

Unfortunately, last summer’s Dead Man’s Chest was a textbook example of how not to make a sequel: convoluted, clunky, and bloated with unfunny gags and loose plot ends, the film was interminable.

And now all the elements that made the second Pirates film such a bore have been amplified and extended in At World’s End, a nearly unwatchable mish-mash of characters, subplots, and styles that conspire to make Dead Man’s Chest seem, in retrospect, a fine effort.