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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | 2011 | PG-13 | - 4.6.4

In the fourth installment in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) team up again on a quest to find the fountain of youth. They soon discover that Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter (Penelope Cruz), who was Sparrow's former lover, are after the same fountain. Also with Kevin McNally, Sam Claflin, Keith Richards and Astrid Berges-Frisbey. Directed by Rob Marshall. [2:17]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A man and a mermaid kiss passionately; the mermaid then grabs the man and carries him underwater as they continue to kiss.
 A man grabs a woman dressed identically as the man, he kisses her and then remarks that he had "always wanted to do that" -- to kiss himself. A man leans in to kiss a mermaid, pushing other men back, and the men try to grab him and pull him forward as the mermaid sinks into the water, almost pulling him down. A man appears to kiss an older woman's neck, he then leaps out of the carriage they are riding in and the woman says, "Is that all?" and we see the man with an earring in his mouth. A man grabs a woman, presumably suggestively, and she shrieks and giggles.
 A man and a woman come very close to kissing on multiple occasions; they have a conversation that includes heavy sexual innuendo about their previous sexual relationship, and the woman says the man had "defiled" her and the man mentions how he "had" the woman. A man stands close to a woman, and their faces are close to one another as he runs his hand down her arm in a suggestive fashion and then pulls away. A man, fully clothed, climbs in bed with a woman who is also fully clothed; the woman remarks about it being a dream, asks the man to keep on his boots and sword (implying a sexual fantasy), and she then wakes up and shouts at the man, who jumps out of the bed. A man is seen holding onto a sign with a woman's cleavage carved out; his face rests against the cleavage.
 A woman tells a man that he was so intoxicated that he had slept with her and gotten her pregnant. A man makes a crude joke implying a sexual position. A man jokingly tells men that mermaids use men to "churn their butter," implying sex. A man tells several men that a kiss from a mermaid is rumored to save a man from drowning; the men disagree. A man jokes that he found a woman in a convent when he was looking for a brothel.
 Mermaids are seen shirtless with their bare backs visible and the lower portion of a mermaid's cleavage is seen -- her hair obscuring her bare breasts. A woman appears to be fully nude with her hands and hair covering her body as a man takes off his shirt and wraps her with it. A woman wears a cleavage-exposing dress and she rips open two buttons and exposes her cleavage even further. Women are seen in a bar setting wearing tight corsets with their cleavage exposed. We see a man's bare chest and a portion of his bare back as he walks around without a shirt. Two men are seen throughout the movie with part of their bare chests exposed; one is wearing an open vest and the other is shirtless with a scarf pulled over a portion of his chest. A man wears a shirt unbuttoned to reveal a portion of his upper bare chest.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man kicks another man's peg leg out from under him, swings his sword toward him and cuts his hand (the man winces in pain); he then stabs him in the stomach (we see a small amount of blood on the man's hand and on his stomach). A woman helps a man that has been stabbed by another man with a sword, she pulls on the sword, we see a bloody cut on her hand and a man tells her that the blade is covered in poison; we see the man and the woman about to die (we later see the woman recovered).
 A mermaid bares her fangs as several men grab a man away from her; one of the men uses an oar to stab the mermaid as she hisses. Mermaids surround a small boat loaded with men, they lunge toward the boat, breaking it apart with their hands as they bare their fangs and hiss; the men strike the mermaids with oars, they try to shoot them and a man sinks exploding casks of gunpowder into the water that send the mermaids away.
 There is an extended battle between men and mermaids: mermaids with nets reel men into the sea at high speeds, a man leaps across a boat dock, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by hissing mermaids, a woman's foot is caught in a mermaid's ropes (she is pulled to safety), a mermaid pops out of a hole in a boat deck and tries to grab a man, a man kicks a mermaid in the face, and after the battle we see men lying on the ground, injured, and we later see a man kicking the sand-covered corpse of a mermaid.
 We see two men pulling out swords and lunging toward one another until another man interrupts the fighting, telling a group of men rallying behind the two men to not fight, since the two men should just be allowed to kill each other; the two groups run toward one another with swords and guns drawn, they punch, stab and knock one another to the ground, we see a man (presumably dead) collapse on top of another man that shoves his body to the side and a man stabs another man and throws his body to the ground (we see a small amount of red on his chest).
 Water rushes around a man, we see his body begin to disintegrate, he reaches out his hand (the bones are visible with small amounts of flesh clinging to them) and he turns into a skeleton; he then collapses into a pond.
 A man stabs a sword through a zombie's chest, the zombie grabs the sword, pulls it out and we hear a slicing noise as it is implied he then chopped off the man's head (no blood is visible). Men fight against zombie-men (their faces are covered in boils and maggots crawl on them); they fight with swords, kick and punch one another, and men and zombie-men hit the deck of a ship as a woman fights two other men at once.
 A soldier holds a man at gunpoint, we hear a shot and see the soldier drop to the ground as a third man appears from behind the soldier, holding a smoking gun. A young man is placed in a boat and ordered by another man to row away from a large ship: we see a blast of fire come from the ship, engulfing the small boat in flames, a crowd of men and a woman watch the boat burn, one of the men makes a remark about the cruelty of the man who sent the young man away, and the man then orders another burst of flames shot from the ship, causing the small boat to explode.
 A man appears to drop dead (no blood is visible) as men and a woman walk through a cave. Two men pull another man out of a fishing net, and the man appears dead -- his lower extremities appear to be gone; one of the men approaches the presumably dead body and the man opens his eyes, and the two men later present the partially decomposed man wrapped in a blanket to another man, who announces the man is over 200 year old.
 A man forces a woman to look at the skeletal remains of another woman (we see the partially decayed skeleton tied to a tree); he then says he will do the same to the woman, allowing her to die a slow death as the sun rises.
 We see a woman tied to a tree, a man attempts to rescue her, but is surrounded by men that grab him and appear to slice his throat; the man falls to the ground as the woman tied to the tree watches, unfazed (the man is seen later waking up with a sleeping dart in his back).
 A man stabs a mermaid in the tail and the mermaid hisses and tries to escape as men drop a net over her; she is later seen being carried in a glass coffin with a small amount of water inside, struggling to breathe until a man uses a knife to pry open the coffin.
 Using a voodoo doll in a man's likeness, a man causes another man to wince in pain as he stabs the doll's stomach, singes the doll's hair and twists the doll's arms. A man draws his sword against another man, forcing him to walk to the edge of a cliff overlooking a waterfall; the man instructs the other man to jump, we see him dump a voodoo doll in the likeness of the man over the cliff, the man screams as the doll falls into the water and then leaps into the water moments later (he is unharmed).
 During a sword fight between two men and soldiers, we see the two men swing two soldiers together, they crash and fall to the ground, and a man dumps coconuts onto the heads of the soldiers; one is seen falling to the ground and the man swings from the top of a tree, holding a rope as he wraps soldiers around a tree with the rope.
 A man tells another man that he will kill his own daughter if the man does not listen to him; the man instructs the other man to hold up two of seven guns loaded with bullets and fire at the woman, and the man fires one blank shot at his daughter, and then fires a bullet into the air -- he was never going to kill her.
 A man holds onto a rope tied between two buildings, a soldier sees the man and orders another soldier to cut the rope, the man swings into a carriage, and he leaps out and along the tops of carriages as soldiers holding muskets and swords chase him; the man steps on another man's head as he leaps onto a carriage carrying coal, a bullet fired by one of the soldiers ignites the coal and it dumps flaming coal all over the street, causing the soldiers on horseback to rear back, the man shoves the driver of the carriage off (he rolls to the ground) and the carriage explodes in flames (the man is unharmed and we see him hanging onto a sign as the flaming carriage rolls away).
 A man uses the hilt of two soldier's muskets to hit them in the face, they fall over, he kicks another soldier in the face and he falls to the ground, he knocks two more soldiers to the ground and then uses a chair to break a window, grab onto a chandelier and swing over several men in order to escape unharmed (soldiers holding muskets and swords chase him). A man kicks another man in the chest, a man ties a zombie-man to a ship's ballast and a man tries to tie a zombie-man to a cannon, as two other men hold a woman back.
 A man and a woman are dressed identically as they fight with swords: they walk around a fireplace, the woman kicks the man, he falls backwards bracing himself on a spit above the fire, he ducks to narrowly avoid being hit by a pulley swinging from the ceiling and barrels of alcohol rolling down a plank, their swords clash, the woman stomps on the man's foot, puts her sword under his throat and she pulls away moments later; the woman tells the man that she had almost killed him and the man laughs.
 A man swings a sword at a man, he falls to the ground and we hear the sound of the man spitting (we do not see him spitting or see the spittle). A man uses a sword to command ropes that pick up men and hang them from the ship's rigging; one of the men is hung upside down and then dropped to the ground with a thud (he is unharmed).
 A man and a woman fight against several soldiers with swords: the man throws barrels of beer (beer sprays over the soldiers) across the room, the man and the woman are surrounded by the soldiers with muskets and swords drawn, and the man pulls a lever that releases a trap door beneath their feet and they fall into water, unharmed. Two men lunge at one another with their swords, and they stop as the boat they are standing on begins to sway dangerously; the two men wrestle and shove one another as the ship tips back and forth and both men escape unharmed.
 We hear what sounds like an arrow being shot, a man grabs his shoulder and pulls out a dart; he passes out moments later and awakens when he falls off a hammock on a ship, disoriented about his surroundings.
 Two men hear screaming and hissing coming from a boat in the distance, and it is implied the men are being killed by mermaids; one of the men instructs the other man to ignore the screams, saying that he only hears seagulls. A man explains to another man that a person had the ability to turn dead men into zombies, explaining that their faces appear covered in pox, boils, and with crawling maggots hanging from their cheeks and lips.
 A man causes a lighthouse to explode into a ball of flames; he leaps to safety and then jokingly tells a group of men that he will not do a similar performance again. A woman stabs a sword through a door and a man on the other side narrowly avoids being stabbed in the head.
 Several men destroy a fountain, pulling giant rocks down on top of it as we see other men lying on the ground, injured. A man leaves a woman on an island and as he paddles away in a boat; she fires at him and misses.
 Four men carrying what looks like a glass casket containing a living mermaid stumble, the glass shatters and the mermaid falls to the ground; she turns into a woman as a man shouts that she must walk, she attempts to do so but stumbles, and the man says, "Walk or die."
 A man steps out of a carriage and is surrounded by soldiers holding muskets; the man puts his hands over his head and is dragged by the arms by two men. A man holds a knife to another man's throat and then drops it moments later. A man holds a knife to a woman's throat and then drops it moments later. A man holds several men in a boat at gunpoint. A man with a bat strikes another man, whose hands are bound behind his back, on the back and shoulder.
 A zombie with a face crawling with maggots shoves a man to the ground; we then see him using a whip to hit the man in the background. A woman grabs a venomous snake, wraps it around her neck, points the snake's face at a man, and then drops it.
 A man throws a woman, her hands bound behind her back, onto the ground, he throws a gun next to her, tells her it has one bullet, and she asks if it is to kill herself before she starves to death on an island; the man turns away and turns back moments before the woman tries to hit him with a branch. A man shoves another man to the ground. A man knocks a man on the head with a crutch and he falls to the ground. Several men shout and tip men out of hammocks, while swinging swords in the air. A man grabs another man, then shoves him against a wall and uses a knife to hold him against the wall. A man grabs another man from a prison cell and throws him against a wall; the man has a hood over his head. A man knocks another man in the nose with his palm. A man tries to leap across a table to attack a man and two soldiers hold him man back. We see a man tied up with his mouth gagged and in a closet (it is implied that he had been kidnapped earlier). A man with his hands tied behind his back is lead by two guards toward gallows; a third man appears and throws a rope to the man instructing him to make his own noose and threatening that he will allow the man to hang with his mouth open so flies will get inside if he does not cooperate.
 A man comments that he could order a man to be "bludgeoned like a harp seal" as a crowd looks on. We overhear men suggesting that they cut out a mermaid's eyes as a man threatens to rip the scales from a mermaid's body. A man tells another man that he will drive a sword covered with poison into a man's heart. A man shouts that he lost his leg because of another man, and that he wants revenge. A woman tells a man that another man is destined to be killed by a one-legged man. A man tells another man that he has been destined to be killed by a one-legged man. A man tells other men on a small boat that mermaids will pull men into the ocean, sinking their bodies to the bottom and then eating them, or eating them and then drowning them. A woman cries for a man to be hanged, and a man addresses a crowd of people saying that if a man is convicted of a crime that he will be hanged; another man then announces that the man should be hanged. A man tells a woman that he must periodically kill someone to remind people that he is evil. A man tells several people that he is arresting a man for murder, piracy, and theft. A man describes to another man how he had lost his leg, and that he and his shipmates had been caught up in the ropes of a ship as they were possessed and he implies that he had been able to cut off his own leg in order to free himself from the ropes. A man tells another man that a pirate had killed an entire ship filled with people, aside from one man, whose life was saved by a woman. A man tells another man that he had heard a rumor that the man was decapitated and that his headless body swam around his boat three times before getting back on ship. A man tells another man he was on his way to save the man from the gallows. A man jokingly tells another man that he was on his way to save a man from the gallows. A man jokingly asks another man if he had threatened the man's life in the past. A man jokingly says that he will be stripped down to the bones. A girl asks her father about a pirate being executed, and he explains that they will hang later in the day.
 Street vendors shout that there is going to be an execution, a man holds a billboard that says that pirates will be executed and we see a man selling puppets that appear to be hanging from the gallows. Two men lie next to a skeleton on a bed; the skeleton is animated and turns its head toward one of the men. Throughout the movie we see skeletons and skulls, as decoration on a ship, on the ground where men and women are walking, and sitting in a bed.
 Two men in the back of a carriage are jostled about, hitting the walls of the carriage as it comes to a halt. A man screams and acts surprised when a monkey screams in his face from inside a ship in a bottle.
 A man pounds on a table with his fist. A man throws a knife into a table in front of another man. A man stabs a sword into a table. A man drinks from a bottle and smashes it to the ground.

LANGUAGE 4 - 8 sexual references, 1 mild anatomical term, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (imposter, thief, vicious, muckers, fool, perpetually ill-tempered, poor sod, waste-off, melancholy, miscreant, coward, sheep, old man, Your Hiney, ruthless, soulless, cross-eyed, churl, pure evil, worthless, goody goodies, to be feared more than a vengeful hungry beast, annoy, like a girl, bloomy cockroaches, filthy, besotted, shell-wack, filthy pig, trickster, devil, cruel, ignorant), exclamations (oh bother, shut your trap, bloody), 4 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Throughout the movie we see men and women drinking what is presumably alcohol from flasks, beer steins, hollow peg legs and from barrels, men and women are seen in a bar acting intoxicated and a woman tells a man that he had been so drunk that he had slept with her, and a man jokes that because a man cannot remember how he got onto a ship that it was just like other men that "drink away their bonuses."

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Betrayal, mutiny, deception, love, greed, trust, loyalty, loss of love, courage, hopelessness, cowardice, tradition, priorities, destiny, freedom, delirium, honor, hallucinations, death of a parent, cruelty, whale oil, mermaids, zombies, pirates, privateers, England, Spanish Inquisition, Catholicism, fountain of youth.

MESSAGE - Even people who act callously can occasionally show compassion.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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