The Boat That Rocked
Review
by Anthony Morris
In 1966, at the
high point of rock'n roll's British Invasion, British radio -
basically, the BBC - played less than an hour of popular music a
day.
To fill the
clear demand for something a bit more toe-tapping, pirate radio
stations broadcast from old cargo ships off the coast of the
UK.
One such ship
was the base of Rock Radio, home to a quirky collection of oddball DJs
who played records, took drugs, messed around, and had a surprisingly
large amount of sex considering women were only allowed on board once
every two weeks.
Writer/director
Richard Curtis is best known in movie circles for romantic comedies
like Notting Hill and Love Actually, but in an earlier life he created
TV shows like The Vicar of Dibley and this is a harsh reminder of his
sitcom rots.
With a
meandering, forgettable plot kept afloat by funny yet one-dimensional
characters, this is an idea that probably would have worked better
sliced up into half-hour segments: The One Where The Virgin tries To
Get Laid, The One Where The Two Top DJs Get Into a Fight, The One Where
the Dorky Loser Gets Married to a Stunner (guess what - there's a
twist!) and so on.
It's still fun
to watch, largely because the cast (including Phillip Seymour Hoffman,
Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Rhys Darby, Nick Frost and Kenneth Brannagh)
are clearly having loads of fun themselves. But you have to ask
yourself: how many shots of people dancing around their radios does one
movie need? Music is fun, we get it. A better movie
wouldn't need to keep reminding us of something as basic as that.
Then again, a
better movie probably would have had the music actually stand for
something more than just an excuse to show people dancing around their
radios.
2.5 out
of 5
The Boat
That Rocked
Australian release: 9th Apr, 2009
Official
Site: The Boat That Rocked
Cast: Bill Nighy, January Jones,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gemma Arterton, Emma Thompson
Director: Richard Curtis
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