'Pirates' lengthy but likeable
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" Running time: 150 minutes MPAA rating: PG-13

Man, is this a long movie. Seriously. Have your girlfriend bring The Big Purse, cuz you're gonna hafta smuggle a cake and a rack o' ribs into the theater if you expect to make it to the end credits of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" without passing out.

Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow, the sashaying, part Wile E. Coyote, part Keith Richards swashbuckler trying to weasel his way out of a pact he made with the squidfaced Davy Jones. If Sparrow doesn't deliver 100 souls to Jones within three days, he will be consigned to serving 100 years as a slave on Jones' ghost ship.

Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly also reprise their roles as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, the bland lovers who find themselves pulled into Jack Sparrow's bumbling scheme to thwart Davy Jones.

Of course, because "Dead Man's Chest" is so interminably long and the second chapter in a trilogy (can you say "Cliffhanger Ending"? Sure. I knew you could), what could have been an extremely entertaining standalone flick ends up being a pretty good middle act with only about 45 minutes of spectacular and gut-bustingly funny moments. The entire sequence featuring Jack Sparrow attempting to escape from a tribe of cannibals could've been a movie in its own right. It is one of the funniest examples of slapstick comedy I've seen since Chuck Jones did the Road Runner cartoons back in the '60s.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns to the open seas this summer in the sequel "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

Here's the good and bad of the movie: Depp steals every scene he is in. He carries the movie. He is more exciting to watch than all the millions of computer-generated effects in this film. Unfortunately, every scene Depp ISN'T in suffers because Bloom and Knightly simply don't have the acting chops or the screen presence to compete with Depp. These are the scenes where you glance at your watch and become aware of how long the film is.

Still, "Dead Man's Chest" is a darned good summer film and well worth your time. Just don't forget the cake and ribs.

GRADE: B(c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc.