Plot less mess

Rating: 3/10 (11 April 2009)

This is an extremely misguided piece of direction that sadly stains what was up until now a reasonable career in making 'jolly English comedies'. Mr Curtis is obviously a 'fanboy' of this era, the music and is quite clearly in love with the romance of being involved with pirate radio. I say that because he has gone to so much trouble to create a film on exactly that but has forgotten to include all the elements that has made him so successful previously.
The film revolves around the lives of the DJs on-board a pirate radio station anchored in the North Sea during the 60s and the government's attempts to outlaw this practise. If you are a massive fan of the music of that era then you will no doubt love the soundtrack, however I would recommend simply buying the accompanying CD and not bothering watching the movie. There are as many plot holes in the script as there are portholes on the ship and the loose ends will drove you crazy, which for a film over 2 hours is a significant period of time to sit through such discomfort.
The biggest laugh of the film comes from one of the peripheral characters having the same surname as a slang word for female genitalia. Almost funny the first time, definitely not funny on the tenth time around! I'm not going to give the ending away as I don't want this review to contain spoilers but the last 15 minutes of this tortuous movie proceeds into farce that isn't believable, entertaining, comical or even required to end the movie.
In summary it was a huge relief when the end credits went up.