Pirate Radio

Reviewer: Jeffrey Anderson
Rating (out of 5): ***

It's 1966, and though the Kinks, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who are making great records, rock 'n' roll has been mostly banned in England. Due to a loophole, however, it's legal for radio stations to broadcast from offshore. In Pirate Radio, Richard Curtis, screenwriter (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill) turned director (Love Actually) focuses on one boat, the Radio Rock, filled with an assortment of nuts and outcasts.

These include the boisterous American Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), tubby Dave (Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost), seductive Gavin (Rhys Ifans), Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke), Simple Simon (The IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd) and the mysterious Midnight Mark (Tom Wisdom), who has hoards of women fans by managing a neat trick: he's a deejay that hardly says anything at all. Quentin (the always reliable Bill Nighy) is the devil-may-care captain.

But of course, we need a newcomer so that the audience can easily be introduced to everyone, and thus we get young Carl (Tom Sturridge), Quentin's godson, who is sent to stay in this atmosphere of rock music, drinking, women, and general debauchery. We must also have a villain, and the movie gives us the comically menacing government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), who, from his office on dry land, will stop at nothing to shoot down the freedom fighters. At his side, he has the boot-licking Dominic Twatt (Jack Davenport); Dormandy takes every opportunity to bark orders at him, calling him by his last name. Aside from these plots, The Count and Gavin strike up a rivalry, romances come and go, and there's lots of general bickering and ribbing, as well as a "surprise" or two.

Pirate Radio was trimmed by 20 minutes after its release in England, where critics complained of excessive length (and where the film was titled The Boat That Rocked). The American result feels buoyant, but perhaps a bit too weightless. There are too many characters with not enough screen time, which comes out to not much depth for anyone. The centerpiece character, Carl, is the weakest of all, not helped by the fact that actor Sturridge is a pretty boy who is constantly going up against and losing to a team of more talented and experienced comics and character actors. The overall character arcs are far too simplistic and conventional, and there's no real emotional connection.

On the plus side, the movie's good-natured rebellion and rock 'n' roll spirit -- not to mention the generous rock 'n' roll soundtrack -- create some genuine, infectious enthusiasm that is hard to resist.

Universal's DVD release comes with no less than 50 minutes' worth of deleted scenes, some of which were probably shown in theaters in the British cut. We also get a pretty standard 20-minute making-of featurette, and a commentary track with director Curtis, producer Hilary Bevan Jones, and actors Nick Frost and Chris O'Dowd.