A few nights ago I was flipping through the channels and I came upon a treasure chest full of sh**(Blackbeard), but being the generous soul I am I decided to give this movie a chance: That was my first mistake. I hated this movie from start to finish, because I quickly learned that Blackbeard was a Captain Jack Sparrow wannabe. He dressed like Sparrow; walked, talked and acted like Sparrow and just might be the "next best thing" but not quite Sparrow! Sorry I lied Blackbeard isn't "the next best" at anything, the pirate that was at my third birthday party was more of man then Blackbeard. It doesn't end there, this movie wouldn't be complete without Zoroish Bandits, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Governor Swann, and Bad-Acting Pirates. Note this people I wasn't expecting much when I started watching this "film" and I use the term loosely, I just expected at least a history channel esq documentary at best, but instead I got a Pirates of the Caribbean rip off. I would rather play in a radioactive waste dump then endure another 160 minutes of this piece of trash. So, I hope this film rots at the bottom of Davey Jones' Locker with the rest of the Pirates of the Caribbean rip offs.

I picked this film up based on the Cover, A Mini-Series for cheap. I got less than what I paid for. The Complete lack of Continuity, or any other production value for that matter, is Appalling. Had I been hired for this cast, I'd have left based on the poor writing alone.I'll not confuse Larry for Barry Levinson again.I feel sorry for Poor Stacy Keach having to have his name attached to this Crap. This Film is worse than most High School Plays, let alone your local Community Theater. I hope Angus Macfadyen got paid well enough for His outstanding Performance. As BlackBeard he alone captures the Attention that his role demands, despite the sad performance of the Writer. HIs performance alone kept me from tearing the disc out and launching it through an open window.

The acting and filming were quite good, however the historical facts were quite distorted. Pirates are portrayed as as evil villains as they are in this film however as in the case of Captain James Kidd they were probably pawns of the wealthy. Maybe future serious pirate movies could address the fact that most pirates were either government assisted employees or scapegoats for a corrupt society. Personally I liked Errol Flynn better, unbelievable but more swashbuckling. The person who portrays Blackbeard in this film (McFayden)is a very good actor but does not come across as the strange person that history suggests he was, for example the smoking beard.Finally it was too long and in parts disjointed.

The movie is set in the early part of the 18th century. However, when they site a French ship early in the story, it is flying the blue, white, and red flag of modern France which did not come into existence until the French Revolution some 75 years later.It would also help if there was more character development. For example, other than duty, it is not clear what is motivating the hero to undertake the mission which serves as the basis upon which the story is built.The settings, which I understand were built in Thailand, are also well constructed and believable as being in the Bahama Islands almost 300 years ago and provide good backgrounds for the scenes.