Me, three. And it makes me giggle every darn time.

Uh oh.

The splats are coming in for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest!

It's better be good. I'm driving to the deep south to see it!

You're seeing it in Alabama?

Yes, or so it seems.

There are places where I will drive at the drop of a hat. Then there are places that, byt some magical twist, just seem like they are so far away. The Valley - West Side is one of those places. South Irvine and Beyond is another. It's not so much the distance as it is the amount of traffic I usually encounter while driving there. The culprit is usually the 405.

While I enjoyed PotC: DMC quite a bit (though it has some significant flaws), I think this one is critic proof. The audience at my screening absolutely loved it.

Are you reviewing it for MP?

Yes. It'll run tomorrow along with my review of Once in a Lifetime.

Cool.

Can you clarify what you mean by 'critic proof'? Are you saying that it's immune from neg criticism by the critics or that it's more vulnerable because it's a sequel?

I mean that pretty much absolutely nobody will care what the critics have to say about it. They've already decided whether they'll see it or not. So it is pre-emptively critic proof.

I also think that the "critic consensus" will give the movie lower marks than the "general consensus." This is one of those big sloppy summer tentpoles where critics will tend to focus on the negatives (and they definitely exist) that most people won't even notice.