The Boat That Rocked (15)

Film

Comedy

Time Out rating:

User ratings:

Time Out says

Tue Mar 31 2009

‘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

99+

Comments

Add +

Release details

Rated:

UK release:

Fri May 1 2009

Duration:

135 mins

Cast and crew

Share your thoughts

Your rating
Name *
Email *
Comment *
* mandatory fields
Tick to receive relevant updates from Time Out including news, events, offers and competitions.

Comments & ratings

(272 ratings)

I agree with Des, Dean and Tracy. Curtis sprinkled some of his â€˜privateâ€™ garden clippings on my cinema pie.

Kai Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Iâ€™ve just got back from the cinema. Best sleep in ages!

Chris Hemlock Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Not quite sure how to respond to some of the comments below - I just got back from the cinema and was preparing myself to write a lengthy criticism but having read some of the below (immature yet somehow hilarious) I'll cut to the chase: I thought the film was the pits.

Ellen Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
I agree with Dean and Des, Curtis got out his left breast and sprayed my cinema going face with sour milk!

Tracy McBride Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
I agree with Dean, Curtis got out his wanger and widdled on our cinema screens!

Des Firmly Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Curtis Pooed on a plate and sent it to my cinema L

Dean Curtis Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
aaah thank you that clears up although i found the "rape" scene funny and i nearly fell off my seat with laughter at the underwater scene!! i thought that was oh so funny...my sister found it funny too.....the scene where they are falling down right) it wouldnt have been funny but underwater it was!! granted that it was not really all that funny....none of the rest of the cinema laughed....but then i laugh at anything...including the bourbon sene tee hee OOOH AND I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL IT IS ON DVD

rosie.g Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 5/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
Woah â€“ I thought it was John Candy. Did they digitally insert him in? The credits said it was Nick Frosp, was he just the voice? If so it was the phony American accent that spoiled it for me. Bring on Cool Runnings 3!

Kenny Gee Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
The â€˜Rapeâ€™ scene is where the young (Hugh Grant-e-like) virgin and John Candy try to swap women with the lights off. Fortunately this was only an attempted rape, but the bad intentions were there. I was once â€˜swappedâ€™ at a party and it was thoroughly unpleasant! The â€˜Father and Sonâ€™ scene is set underwater while they play the Cat Stevens song. I once had to listen to Cat Stevens and it wasnâ€™t nice. Still at least they didnâ€™t combine attempted rape and Cat Stevens, if they had Iâ€™d have walked out of the cinema!

Clement Montgomerie Wed Apr 15 2009
Rated as: 1/5
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *
to Clement Montgomerie (and anyone else) which was the rape scene and which was the father and son scene....cos i cant remember any rape. and this is a different rosie to the one who thought we were on about a differ film

rosie.g Wed Apr 15 2009
Report
1. Name *
2. Email *
3. Reason *

The Boat That Rocked (15)

Time Out rating:

User ratings:

Time Out says

Release details

Rated:

UK release:

Duration:

Cast and crew

Cast:

Director:

Screenwriter:

Comments & ratings

About us

Time Out products

Time Out London magazine

Advertising

Site map

Follow us