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The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Director: Richard Curtis

Time Out rating

Average user rating

326 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

kev said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 17:25 Wasted 20 quid going to see this Sunday. Only two other people in the cinema, so had a clue it would be bad. If you're thinking of going suggest you read these posts first, ignoring the good ones that are probably written by film's PR people.

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kay said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 17:10 Philip Seymour Hoffman has offered to hand back his Oscar for Capote due to his association with this dog of a film. Enough said.

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anita said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 17:09 what on earth is the matter with you people? The Boat that Rocked...well it rocked! I loved it and would easily pay to see it again..in fact I hope I get the DVD for Christmas. I am not a regular cinema goer so am not an expert by any means but I know what I like - and I liked this so can everyone else please stop being so nasty about it??

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marie said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 16:07 I loved this movie! Lots of laughs, sountrack amazing, I would have loved to live in the 60ies :-)

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Will said...

Posted on Apr 27 2009 10:55 Made by the most successful active british director, with an all star cast and huge budget, this clearly was supposed to be a big box office earner.
Sadly the movie is so unappealing it has (deservedly) sunk without trace. How Curtis took this idea, cast and a ton of cash and produced a such a dire movie is beyond me. Awful.

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Andrew said...

Posted on Apr 26 2009 13:17 i thought the film was wicked! I enjoyed the light heartedness, the britishness and the one liners. No its not a box office movie, but its not as sh*t as everybody is making it out to be! At all! Sounds like all these people who have rated the film, are those who like to complain about everything!

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terry T said...

Posted on Apr 25 2009 01:55 This film really seems to have raised some strong opinions. The reviews here are polarized between those who hate the film (normal film goers who have actually seen it) and those that love it (film PR people & the mentally fragile).
Avoid, or kiss goodbye to two and a half hours of your life wasted.

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SINITTA said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 21:54 No laughs for people of any age group including those who lived through the era when pop music could only be heard via pirate radio stations. The soundtrack was unmemorable, the storyline non existent and unfunny. One of the worst films I have ever seen!

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David F said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 18:18 'Laugh a minute'? Give me a break. It doesn't matter what age you are, sh*t still smells bad.
I lived through the 60's, enjoyed pop and pirate radio. However, I hated this film - every last minute of it.

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ANITA said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 18:06 A laugh-a-minute film for people of a certain age group, those who lived through the era when pop music could only be heard via pirate radio stations. The soundtrack was memorable, the storyline hilarious. One of the best films I have ever seen!

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jo said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 00:21 No laughing out loud at the showing I went to. Then again there were only about 6 of us in the cinema.
Disregard posts from the film's PR firm and steer clear. There are loads of good films out at the moment and this ain't one of them.

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Sarsh said...

Posted on Apr 23 2009 23:14 I thought this film was hilarious - really enjoyed it from start to finish. It is light hearted, had a fantastic soundtrack and had plenty of laugh out loud moments. Its never going to be oscar worthy but it does what it does very well!

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Paul said...

Posted on Apr 23 2009 22:14 Goodness me, I've just got back from the cinema still in a state of shock. Did I just pay £8 to go and watch that? Is there any way I can get my money back? If so, I imagine I will have to join a very long queue - there were some angry cinema goers where I was tonight. Appalling. This film should be consigned to a late night slot on Ocean Finance TV (Sky channel 888).

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David King said...

Posted on Apr 23 2009 21:42 Well acted, well cast, really funny, good photography. Were you lot watching the same film? I was around then and this brought it all back. Many depictions of real incidents.
JW was called 3 minute Walker I seem to remember. Had trears running, you are right the cast seemed to have been enjoying making the film. And that is why it will be viewed as a classic in years to come. Watch it again is my advice. Even if you were not around in the 60's you will really enjoy the naive innoncence of the establishment. But they changed the world of radio for ever.

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em said...

Posted on Apr 23 2009 18:41 this film is not crap it is amazing on of the best laughs ive had watching a movie. everyone in the cinema was is fits of laughter go see the movie its fab fab fab

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