Beautiful, moving film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The recent popularity of Captain Jack Sparrow as essayed by Johnny Depp in several films gave someone at Hallmark Channel the idea of making a movie about the real deal on whom Jack Sparrow is based. That would be on Edward Teach known down in history and legend as Blackbeard. But sad to say that not only is Angus MacFayden competing against Depp on the big screen, but also against an actor gone from us since 1957, but one who made the role of Blackbeard truly his own.Robert did a wonderful film about the demise of Blackbeard back in 1952 and no doubt Johnny Depp must have studied that portrayal intensely because he got so much of it in Jack Sparrow. It's not Angus MacFayden's fault, but next to Newton giving one of the great pork product performances in a role that called for it, MacFayden taking it down a notch was disappointing.Young British naval lieutenant Mark Umbers is given orders straight from the Admiralty in London. Find out about this Blackbeard guy and take him however and trust no one in your mission because we don't know who is in with Blackbeard. This he does. Along the way he has to rescue Jessica Chastain, ward of British Island governor Richard Chamberlain who has plans for her that neither she or Umbers is in favor of.This version of Blackbeard is all right, but once you've seen Robert Newton you can't settle for anything else.

Really, Its hard to find words for how bad this was. I lasted half an hour and then I just couldn't stand any more. Its not just that the acting and script were bad, and they were, the setting, costumes and general atmosphere were so wrong that a bad film failed even to transport you to the world it was meant to portray which might at least have made me watch a bit more of it.I was put off right at the beginning by Edward Teach (Blackbeard) having a Scottish accent when of course he was English. Angus MacFadyen can act English why didn't he? Stacy Keach looked embarrassed as well he should and Richard Chamberlain tried to rise above it but his costume prevented him. Thailand does not look like the West Indies and the Thais don't look like African slaves.the acting was truly awful and the script sounded like a teenager had written it after watching a few old movies. The costumes were particularly awful. Richard Chamberlain's looked like a High School pantomime costume and the wigs looked as if someone had once seen a picture of an English lawyer and tried to reproduce it from memory with cotton wool. About the only decent thing in it was the ships and the at sea sequences where at least they'd spent a bit of money.I know it was Hallmark but they can do an reasonable enough job, Moby Dick was OK, this was bad, bad, bad. So bad I felt insulted and bitterly resented the rental fee. If you're thinking about watching it don't, just look out the window for an hour its bound to be more entertaining.

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.

I sat down to watch this show in the hope of some good entertainment. I was very disappointed. The design elements of the show are paper thin. The costumes are all pristine, the boats look like they are just out of the boatyard and these must me the cleanest pirates I have ever seen. Very poor. I was hoping for something from the direction but unfortunately this has been shot like an episode of Dallas. I dread to think how much money was wasted on this when there are fantastic scripts waiting to be made for a fraction of the cost. An obvious attempt to hang onto the coat tails of Pirates of the Caribean and pick up the scraps but it even fails in this attempt.