Stellar cast and soundtrack - A must see!

Rating: 8/10 (4 September 2010)

I wasn't sure about this film because Richard Curtis had received a bit of a grilling for this one. Something about too many characters chucked in together. I couldn't see the problem with that myself. As far as I was concerned I was getting more great actors for the price of one film and I've loved all of his other films so far. The film is set in 1966 on board a ship where a great line up of male characters broadcast 24/7 rock and pop from pirate radio station Radio Rock. Katherine Parkinson (Jen from the IT crowd) is the only woman allowed to live on the boat on the account that her character is a lesbian and can cook...badly. Rhys Ifans isn't in it as much as I thought but in this case it was definitely quality not quantity; Ryhs Darby (Murray from FOTC) was hilarious with his character celebrating the back catalogue of The Seekers. Bill Nighy was the main reason I wanted to watch this but although he was great the shining character for me surprisingly was The Count played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Nick Frost showed just a little too much flesh for my liking but if you have a thing for him you'll love this. The funniest character for me had to be Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke). He was hilarious especially in the who am I game scene. I am only naming but a few here. Quite a lot happens in this film; evil government ministers trying to overthrow the radio station; marriage; betrayal; boy realises who his real father is; boy finds girl; girl finds girl; some titanicesque boat sinking; sex; drugs and you guessed it: plenty of rock 'n' roll. This film has it all and what it lacks in plot and character development it most certainly make up for in cast, comedy and music. The sound track is bloody excellent. I listen to the radio all day during my working week and you just don't get songs like that. My only critique was that it had a tendency to be a bit cheesy in parts but it had me laughing my head off despite this. Stellar cast and even better sound track.