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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST Those expecting amazing feats of derring-do won't be disappointed by this sequel to the 2003 smash. The effects-driven action scenes are clearly the picture's highlights, and they alone make this worth the price of admission. But while the first Pirates felt like both a self-contained movie and the theme park attraction on which it was based, this one just feels like a roller coaster ride, full of momentary thrills but leaving little in its wake except a sudden desire to rest for a minute. It isn't breathless as much as it grows tiresome, and it's especially depressing to see how little the characters have been allowed to evolve. The central thrust finds Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) tangling with the ghostly Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) in an effort to save his own soul from eternal damnation; it's possible that his scheme will require sacrificing his friends (Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley), but that's a compromise the self-serving Jack can accept. The best fantasy tales are often the ones in which the special effects are subservient to the characters, not the other way around; still, this moves quick enough to keep most customers satisfied. **1/2
SCOOP Last year's Match Point earned Woody Allen his best reviews in years, but Scoop finds the writer-director sliding back into his more familiar position these days: a once-great filmmaker now churning out minor works that earn a few positive notices but are mostly met with critical indifference. Scoop, which bares some similarity to Allen's more polished Manhattan Murder Mystery from 1993, is a diverting trifle about an American journalism student (Scarlett Johansson) who learns that a handsome British aristocrat (Hugh Jackman) might also be the notorious Tarot Card Killer. While Johansson (so memorable in Match Point) has unfortunately adopted the Woody-stutter-speech for this latest role (thereby illustrating that she's no Diane Keaton), Allen himself scores some points by having his lowbrow character (a vaudeville-style magician) mingle with the upper crust of British society. And continuing the trend begun in Anything Else, he again casts himself in the role of a hesitant, hands-off mentor rather than as a wrinkled lothario scoring with women young enough to be his granddaughters. That's a blessing. **1/2
OPENS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9:
WORLD TRADE CENTER: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena.
OPENS FRIDAY, AUGUST 11:
PULSE: Kristen Bell, Christina Milian.
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?: Documentary.
ZOOM: Tim Allen, Kate Mara.
