Johnny Depp's 8 Best Movies

 

From aspiring musician to three-time Oscar nominee and Hollywood A-lister, Johnny Depp has a career that many actors would kill for. The former Freddy Kreuger victim's film career has spanned 38 years and 70 films (not to mention a three-year stint on television drama 21 Jump Street. From Donnie Brasco to Captian Jack Sparrow, many of Depp's iconic characters will never be forgotten by movie fans. With that in mind, we here at MTV Is Dead decided that it was high time that we spotlighted the best of the man's cinematic resume. 

8. Private Resort

The year following his feature film debut, Johnny appeared in his first role that saw him survive to the credits. Depp's lesser-known "Jack" character accompanies his buddy, Ben, to a hotel in order to meet girls. During their stay, the baby-faced wannabe players do just that -- as well as a gangster, a crazy cult lady and Police Academy's Sgt. Callahan.

7. Dead Men Tell No Tales

The most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie returned to the series' cursed pirate roots without actually recycling the earlier films.

The flashback to a younger Jack Sparrow in Dead Men is so good that you'd be forgiven for believing that the search for the Fountain of Youth in the preceding movie, On Stranger Tides, struck pay dirt in real life. The truth is that Depp was digitally de-aged to the point that he resembled himself during his considerably lower-budget film days in the 90s. 

6. On Stranger Tides

This fourth Pirates entry thankfully put the series back on track after At World's End. With its introduction of real-life pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach into a fantasy setting and Depp's Jack Sparrow's coconut tree escape from custody, Tides did veer off course a little. But the dark twist on Disney's own The Little Mermaid was a welcome relief from the played out Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann romance.

5. Dead Man's Chest

Dead Man's Chest, the Empire Strikes Back of pirate movies, improves upon
its popular and highly entertaining predecessor exponentially. And just as
in that legendary sequel, the heroes of Dead Man's find themselves in much
more dire straits than when we'd last seen them -- especially a certain
notorious ship's captain.

While the ghost pirates of The Curse of the Black Pearl regained their
lives, this follow-up introduces another crew of supernatural buccaneers
afflicted with an entirely different curse. Captain Davy Jones and his band
of marauders are doomed to spend eternity as humanoid/marine life hybrids
aboard the legendary Flying Dutchman...

The Kraken, the most fearsome sea monster bar none, including Moby Dick, Jaws and the Meg, is the highlight of this Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. After everyone else a abandons ship, a captive Jack Sparrow (Depp) is left on The Black Pearl to meet his fate -- and the Kraken.

4. Curse of the Black Pearl

It's astonishing that a movie adaptation of a theme park ride was actually
greenlit by a major motion picture studio and got a $140 million dollar
budget approved. But the most remarkable thing about The Curse of the Black Pearl is the fact that it's actually entertaining.

The primary secret to the film's success is that, at the time of release,
it was the most  authentic-looking example of its genre. It's clear that
great attention was paid to every minute detail in the interest of
achieving the appropriate optics. What completely separates Black Pearl
from other pirate movies is the fact that it's a ghost story.

Duplicitous but un-cutthroat Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Depp) is the only surviving member of his lost prized possession, his former ship, The Black Pearl.
Though his former crew continues to plunder, pillage and terrorize the high
seas, they're no longer alive. Ten years ago, Sparrow's first mate, William
Barbossa, led a mutiny against Jack and subsequently joined the crew in
stealing cursed Aztec gold, which was originally stolen by conquistador
Hernan Cortes 200 years earlier. The theft has left the pirates doomed to a
living death, roaming the seven seas as corpses for eternity. Though the
men -- and Barbossa's pet monkey -- continue to feel hunger, thirst and
lust, the curse has rendered them unable to find satisfy any of these
cravings and moonlight serves to show their true forms: walking, skeletal
cadavers.

Jack was spared from the hex because the crew  marooned him on a deserted
island before they got their hands on the booty. When the deposed captain
finally makes his way back to civilization -- Port Royal, to be exact -- he
wastes little time betraying his ruthless reputation by saving Elizabeth
Swan, the governor's daughter, from drowning. Good deed notwithstanding,
Jack is promptly imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging. But as luck
would have it, the Black Pearl and her crew soon drop anchor at Port Royal
as well, drawn by the Aztec gold worn as a necklace by Elizabeth, which
came into her possession eight years earlier. The pirates became aware of
the necklace, a piece of the cursed treasure, the moment that it -- and
Elizabeth -- touched ocean water. After invading the shipping hub, the raiders
kidnap Elizabeth, who tells them that her surname is Turner in order to
conceal her true identity. Turner, however, is actually the family name of
Will, an unassuming and orphaned blacksmith whom she's known since they were children.

3. Murder on the Orient Express

I can't say much about Murder on the Orient Express without spoiling the mystery but what I can say is that Johnny steals the show playing a gangster in 1934 -- for the second time. 

2. City of Lies

Using the actual names of those involved, City of Lies details the real life investigation into the murders of rappers Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace and to a lesser extent, Tupac Shakur, and the police corruption that said investigation revealed. Based on author Randall Sullivan's book "LAbyrinth", the movie reveals how former LAPD detective Russell Poole's (portrayed by Depp) police work led him down some pretty grim paths and to the conclusion that LAPD officer David Mack was also an active member of the Bloods street gang while on the job. Even more astonishing, Mack moonlighted as security for Death Row Records. Worse still, he was directly involved in the 1997 murder-for-hire of Wallace.

While Mack refused to cooperate with police following his arrest, his partner and fellow Bloods member, Officer Rafael Perez, cut a deal after his arrest for the theft of $800,000 worth of cocaine from a police evidence room. Perez's information uncovered the widespread law enforcement corruption that came to be known as the Rampart scandal. His information implicated more than 70 other police officers.

1. Public Enemies

Bringing the 1930s into the 21st century, Public Enemies takes a look at
the headline-making moments in the lives of Depression-era gangsters John
Dillinger (brought to life by Depp) and Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis and briefly touches on
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Alvin Karpis of the Barker Gang and Frank Nitti.

Gillis, who killed three FBI agents in the line of duty, more than any
other individual, is depicted being shot to death by FBI agent Melvin
Purvis -- who later kills Dillinger. In reality, Gillis was killed four
months after Dillinger -- and neither was shot by Purvis. Historical inaccuracies aside, Public Enemies still stands as the best 1930s-era gangster movie to grace the silver screen.