The Boat That Rocked

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2011)

Love Actually was a very cheesy and average comedy, and pretty much just an excuse to have an all star cast, I was surprised to see that Richard Curtis would be writing and directing another film, but I was willing to try it. Basically, set in the swinging 1960's, the popular radio stations such as the BBC do not play as much play as much music as listeners would like, so there are pirate radio stations broadcasting, including Radio Rock. They broadcast on a ship in the middle of the North Sea, and they play all the best music that defines the generation, and that is all, they are standing up to the government that wants dull classical music on the airwaves. The crew consists of Radio Rock boss Quentin (Bill Nighy), new arrival 'Young' Carl (Tom Sturridge), and all the DJs including American star The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), slightly awkward 'Simple' Simon Swafford (The IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd), news and weather reader 'News' John Mayford (Will Adamsdale), popular ladies man 'Doctor' Dave (Nick Frost), not very popular comedy show maker Angus 'The Nut' Nutsford (Rhys Darby), and lesbian chef Felicity (The IT Crowd's Katherine Parkinson). The British government, or rather Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) with his assistant Twatt (Jack Davenport), are not happy that Radio Rock are broadcasting and are doing whatever they can to stop them and make pirate radio stations like it illegal. Of course these attempts to ban become a lot harder when Radio Rock have welcomed back the highly popular former DJ Gavin Kavanagh (Rhys Ifans) after his drug trip in America, but this does cause jealousy from The Count. Towards the end the government create a law, even against public opinion supporting them, that pirate stations may not broadcast, and when Radio Rock try to make a move with the ship the engine explodes, and the ship sinks, but all the crew members do escape, and music does live on after. Also starring Tom Brooke as Thick Kevin, Quantum of Solace's Gemma Arterton as Desiree, Emma Thompson as Charlotte, American Pie: The Wedding's January Jones as Elenore, Cape Wrath's Ralph Brown as Bob, Ike Hamilton as Harold and St Trinian's actress Talulah Riley as Marianne. The all star cast do their parts very well, Hoffman as a cool American, Frost as a funny lover of women and Branagh as a mean government minister. The music throughout the film, with songs like Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' "Dancing In The Street", The Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice", The Who's "My Generation", David Bowie's "Let's Dance", Arthur Brown's "Fire", The Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" and many more do well also. I will admit that I only laughed in certain moments, the story isn't really fully planned out, and it was not all that original all the way through, but it isn't a terrible period comedy. Okay!