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The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Director: Richard Curtis

Time Out rating

Average user rating

328 reviews

Synopsis

Richard Curtis tells the tale of 1960s pirate station Radio Caroline. Bill Nighy stars. Hugh Grant doesn't.

Movie review

From Time Out London

‘The Ship That Sank’ would be a more appropriate title for writer-director Richard Curtis’s latest and most disappointing entertainment. It’s a cripplingly self-conscious and self-satisfied tribute to the roistering last days of offshore British mid-’60s pirate radio before the meanies from the ministry pulled the plugs.

It’s also the kind of musical comedy where the actors seem to be having more fun than any audience could ever share. This overlong, poorly paced and slackly directed ship-bound farrago not only wastes its treasury of golden oldies – Hendrix, Kinks, Small Faces etc – but magically contrives to reduce the chaotic, creative spirit of the sexual and cultural revolution to a mere mechanical catalogue of trite and surprisingly sentimental sex-drugs-and-rock ’n’ roll clichés, each fatally underlined by multiple and repetitive reaction shots.

If there are compensations, they come courtesy of a few diverting performances. The movie’s depressingly few incidences of genuine feeling come from Tom Sturridge who is sweet and appealing as the public schoolboy taken under the wing of his godfather, ship’s captain and Radio Rock boss Quentin, played by Bill Nighy as a self-parody in made-to-measure Regency-collared suits. Philip Seymour Hoffman does a turn as the radical, Emperor Rosko-like DJ in rivalry with Rhys Ifans’s self-serving immoralist Gavin.

Elsewhere, pickings are slim: the talented Ralph Brown is wasted – he’s cast as Wee Small Hours Bob, a misjudged amalgam, presumably, of ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris and dysarthric Danny from ‘Withnail & I’ – and the same is doubly true of such comic talents as Chris O’Dowd, Rhys Darby and Nick Frost.

Author: Wally Hammond 2009-03-31 11:30:36

Time Out London Issue 2015, Apr 2-8 2009

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User reviews of this film

Chris said...

Posted on Dec 29 2009 12:33 I hear both sides of these opinions.
It was funny and I did laugh quite a few times, but I couldn't help being disappointed with the film's overall weakness.
Having heard about it, I was ready for a quality film about a true and genuinely feelgood story, or a dramatization about Radio Caroline. (By the way I am 26 so have no memory of the original station!)
I did enjoy the cutaway shots of the listeners - they gave me a rest from the un-story, and provided perhaps the only believable parts of the film!
Tunes were quality yes, but in a film like this, that is surely to be expected?
There were so many pointless parts to the story, like the
squirm-worthy, poorly acted kid, and the government bloke called Tw@t, which could only go to decrease the film's credibility.
And the ship sinking from some unknown, unexplained entity? Please.
To conclude: even taking escapism into account, it was a disappointing take on a film that could have been truly great. Like a man with a limp handshake, you've got to do a lot to make up for this Mr Curtis.
As someone else said, roll on the remake!

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Theresa said...

Posted on Dec 26 2009 13:08 Absolutely loved it. Ok, so it wasn't particularly deep or innovative, but can't films sometimes just be stylish and fun? I was hugely entertained, and also went off and did a load of research on pirate radio. Very surprised by the difference in comments here and elsewhere.

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Shaun said...

Posted on Sep 25 2009 20:16 Worse than watching Sheffield United at wembley. I'd rather spend an evening locked up with fred west than endure this utter dross ever again. The actors must be embarassed about the end result. Complete rubbish.

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Colleen said...

Posted on Sep 25 2009 20:08 The worst film I ever endured in a cinema. I was sat cringing throughout. The characters have no character and I was waiting for the sinking with hope that would be the end but no - it just gets worse - sinking deeper into a pathetic plot which it seems the director does not know how to end. Absolutely zero star for me.

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Douglas said...

Posted on Sep 24 2009 18:49 Hands down most awesome movie of the year if not the decade!!

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simon Gardener said...

Posted on Sep 03 2009 00:39 delightfully funny and endearing movie.

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Terry said...

Posted on Jul 12 2009 00:10 The amazon.co.uk listing of this film's DVD is remarkable. Almost entirely positive remarks. Why the contrast with this site? Are their PR firm starting to flog the DVD already in a vain effort to claw back some of the money wasted on this lamentable film?

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rubbisher said...

Posted on Jul 11 2009 20:37 A very perceptive piece of film criticism, turks. Well done. I'm sure you could do better if you tried.The

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turks said...

Posted on Jul 11 2009 01:27 shut the hell up, you rubbisher. go and stink somewhere else.

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Seasider5 said...

Posted on Jun 12 2009 22:56 A great opportunity missed I believe. The concept of re-creating the atmosphere of listening to illicit music and cocking a snoop at the "establishment" at vthe time was great. Unfortunately the way it was portrayed in this movie, was amatuerish. Roll on the remake!!!

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JohnONolan said...

Posted on May 29 2009 21:24 You sir, are mistaken. Your harsh review is neither accurate, nor remotely interesting to read. The film was fantastic, I'd like to see you, dear critic, write and direct something better.

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Martin said...

Posted on May 21 2009 10:52 I think the film was good when I saw it- now weeks after I think it was great. I have spent so much time reading up on Radio Caroline and Pirate Stations of the 60's since.
It is a pity the plastic commercila stations of today in the UK are not anywhere as exciting as the Mythical Radio Rock!
I am sure this film will do well when released on DVD
Bless the memory of those Pirates!!!!

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nicklarkin said...

Posted on May 05 2009 06:30 I see the future.The economy worsens, we all live iin flu resistant bubbles and this film is tiurned into a West End musical. In a way it's ideal, The soundtrack is wonderful and you could get way with a couple of sets.. It wouldn't be difficult to recruit people and pay them the minimum wage to throw buckets of water onto the stage for the sinking scenes. Arguably those are most of the film but it dud sort of capture a certain anarchic spirit. Obviously there were so many inaccuracies in this sort of Heartbeat on the ocean portrayal of the Sixties, even down to the semi-detached house at the beginning of the film having horrible uPVC windows and the Routemaster bus sporting neon interior lights. A sad person speaks! Are but are we taking the so- called 'attempted rape' scene too seriously/ The plan was sureky a prank scuppered in any case!

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Dick Quertis said...

Posted on May 04 2009 20:26 If it weren't for Hugh Grant turning down the lead role and Bill Nighy's damned prosthetic finger this film would have been fantastic. The fact that Nighy kept disappearing off set to show 'his niece' around his trailer also norsed things up. Don't try to pin it all on Curtis, he was let down by a lot of people. They know who they are.

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rubbisher said...

Posted on May 04 2009 17:50 Dear Sarah, life is obviously not too short to criticise comedies, as many people, still alive have demonstrated. Isn't talking about films interesting? You seem to think so by participating in this forum. I think we are using different definitions of 'forced'. There seems to me a difference between artifice, good, and forced qualities, bad. One of the forced ideas was the admittedly quite exciting, contest up the mast, which had no organic connection to the feelings of revenge expressed by the Emperor Roscoe character. Anyone involved in creating comedy will say that comedy is a serious business; the director did not take this film seriously; it was never clear whether we were to laugh at the characters or with them. What do you think? What are some of the films you like? I like Mike Leigh films, especially 'Life is Sweet' and 'Career Girls'.

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