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‘On Stranger Tides’ stars Johnny Depp acting up a storm, with Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

After drifting beyond the horizon of any safe harbor, Disney decreed that the latest installment of its "Pirates of the Caribbean" series should return to home waters.

So the new chapter "PotC: On Stranger Tides," recalls its heritage as an amusement park ride. There's a climb here, a dip there, a twist seen coming, and then it's time to walk away unsteadily.

The difference is that a roller-coaster rushes by quickly. The escapades of this "PotC: Arrgg" almost go on forever, though stopping short of its endless predacessors.

That this ride keeps moving at all is thanks to wind power, supplied by Johnny Depp acting up a storm as that swishy swashbuckler, Capt. Jack Sparrow. The antic buccaneer is what made the original movie novel and successful, despite its 'umble origins at Disneyland.

On his fourth adventure, Capt. Jack is up to the task of coping with some changes to his crew, searching for the Fountain of Youth, and ignoring the obvious metaphor for his series.

Gone is plucky tomboy Keira Knightley, replaced by Penélope Cruz's jutting prow to capitalize on 3-D technology. Missing also is lovely Orlando Bloom, replaced by nobody, which seems apt.

Fortunately, Geoffrey Rush is back as Capt. Jack's foil Capt. Barbossa, polishing those comic skills that served him so well in "The King's Speech." They are joined by Ian McShane as Blackbeard, the role he was born to play albeit with a better script than this one.

The first 15 minutes of "PotC: Red Sky in Morning" are smartly amusing, as Capt. Jack "rescues" ever-loyal first mate Gibbs (Kevin R. McNally) from British justice, parlays with King George II and a creampuff, then sends up modern-action movie highway escapes with an 18th Century version.

There are also lightning raids by Keith Richards, in another appearance as Jack's Da, and Judi Dench as a society lady. And for those looking for feeble love interests, there is a subplot with a missionary and a mermaid.

While most of "PotC: Viewers Take Warning" moves along mechanically under Rob Marshall's direction, those mermaids almost throw it off the rails.

Writing for the studio of "The Little Mermaid," screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio thought it would be a neat plot point to require a mermaid's tears to activate the youth-restoring waters.