The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Review by Anthony Morris
As much as everyone loves the Wallace &
Grommit creating Aardman
crew – they're the British version of Pixar, only with a better sense
of humour – the fact remains that their feature-length efforts
sometimes feel a little lacking.
The Pirates! Band Of
Misfits gets around this by being based on a book that seems to have
been extremely episodic; while the overall story arc – The Pirate
Captain (Hugh Grant) wants to be Pirate of the Year despite being a bit
naff - carries throughout the film, he goes through all manner of
stages in his attempts to achieve his goal.
So while the
story opens with him being all pirate-y, soon he and his crew are being
shown up by some really impressive pirates, then they’re trying
extra-hard to be great pirates, then they’re teaming up with a sneaky
Charles Darwin to make a presentation at the London Academy of Science
(which involves a lot of non-Pirate sneaking around 1838-era London),
then they’re dealing with the Pirate-hating Queen Victoria, then
there’s a whole lot more plot complications, all of which prevent
things from getting too stale or predictable.
The jokes
come thick and fast and most of them are extremely funny, the voice
cast are all perfect (Grant is especially good), and Aardman’s skill at
complicated action set-pieces remains as impressive as ever.
If
there’s any flaws to pick, it’d be that the fast-moving plot never
settles down enough to create any real character moments.
But
given the choice going for more laughs is never a bad idea and The
Pirates is going to be one of the funniest (and just plain fun) films
of 2012.
4.5 out
of 5
The
Pirates! Band of Misfits
Australian release: 2nd April,
2012
Official
Site: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Cast: Hugh Grant, David
Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Salma Hayek, Martin Freeman, Jeremy Piven,
Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, Ashley Jensen
Director: Peter Lord
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