Pirate Radio

This is a film that is much more about depicting the relaxed atmosphere of the 60s with the arrival of rock and roll, sexual revolution, and liberal society than telling a story. However, it suffers from the fact that despite the presence of numerous top-notch and popular comedic actors from Britain and overseas, the script fails to bring out fully developed characters from the actors and sell all members of the crew to the audience. Many of them are simply criminally underutilized. Pirate Radio is more of a mishmash of entertaining scenes, among which unfortunately there is also a fair amount of filler in the style of sex-crazed groupies, wild parties, and so on. At the same time, I think that even the main character could have been cast with a more charismatic actor and the script could have given him more space. Perhaps the best part of the movie is the moments with the minister, who is portrayed as a caricature of traditional British conservatism and puritanism. Overall impression: 65%. (08/17/2013)

I'd easily give eight stars if I could, because you rarely see such a splendid array of excellent actors and tasteful humor any time or place. The cast is undoubtedly probably the strongest argument for seeing Richard Curtis' second film at all – personally, I have to say that I was charmed by the undying passion for the cause, the "struggle between good and evil", and especially by Curtis' craftsmanship, which makes the viewer fall in love with the whole group in a very short time. The ending is an emotional mess, which certainly cannot be blamed on its creator. On the contrary, it feels extremely human and natural in such "un-American packaging". One of the most powerful films, with characters that really grow on you. (11/17/2012)

The Movie That Rocked... Love, Actually put you in a good mood through love, Christmas and relationships. The Boat That Rocked did the same (equal quality, even funnier, but less touching for obvious reasons) through sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It also applies that Curtis could objectively be faulted for a lot of other things. It’s just that, the same as with Love, Actually any objections are swept away in that “feel good" tsunami. And yes, the vast majority of characters are just like Billy Mack, but damn, that doesn’t matter one bit, does it? In addition to this, extensive and wonderful use is made of Morricone, along with the rest of the absolutely marvelously chosen rock hits of that era. P.S.: Toward the end we see significant curtailment (primarily of Branagh’s storyline), but I hope that the DVD will include extras with cut scenes like we got with Curtis’ previous offering - this movie deserves it. (05/27/2009)

I see it as a patchwork of scenes, with a very fluctuating level of wit, rather than as an whole film. Curtis defines himself in the screenwriter column, but as a director with scissors in hand, he cruelly overreached. He doesn't even have time to introduce, let alone develop, this parade of exhibition exotics, and if it weren't for the cast, who carry the film mainly with their eccentricity and charisma, this would have been a failure on all fronts. If they make it into a three-hour S.E. Cut or a straight six-part series for TV, I’ll give it full stars. They way it is now, it’s a desperately boring two hours. (08/23/2009)

“How about it then?” A better finale than in Titanic. :-) From the amount of attention the film pays to certain characters, it is obvious that a lot more material was filmed that didn’t make it to the final cut. That, however, doesn’t change the fact that I really enjoyed this flick and the time spent with its characters. The film didn’t have any other ambition and I don’t require anything more. (08/19/2009)