Film Review: The Boat That Rocked - Director: Richard Curtis

My first film review on my blog.

Today I went and watched the latest installment from Richard Curtis, "The Boat That Rocked". The premise of the film is set in 1966 and focuses on a pirate radio station just off shore of the UK, "Radio Rock". The films aim is to pay homage to original pirate radio station of that time, Radio Caroline and to capture the whole experience of the time and the music. The film excels at this by putting a comical twist to the story and having an A list cast; of the likes of: Bill Nighy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Kenneth Branagh and Nick Frost. All of these fine actors play their characters with a certain uniqueness which adds more to the whole experience of the film. I felt personally that my two favourite characters in the film would have to be Hoffman's character; as notorious DJ, "The Count" and Kenneth Branagh's character as the uptight politician, "Minister Dormandy".

The story to the film is really quite simple, compared to Richard's last film released in 2003, "Love Actually", which tried so hard to be a clever comedy, but just come off being not so clever and not really funny. I'm not having ago at Richard here, I happen to be a huge fan of his work, such as, "The Blackadder". Anyway getting back to the story of the film, we open with the words, "1966, the year of Rock n' Roll" and then we move to a scene in house; where a young boy is being told to go to bed, when the boy lies down on his bed we see him reach for his radio next to his bed, in which he puts under his pillow and begins to listen to it. We next here the sound of Hoffman's character speaking and the screen cuts to a close up of his mouth speaking into a mic, announcing what song he is about to play, the song begins to play and we then cut to different groups of people of different ages listening to the same station and having a good time.

After this introduction we are then introduced to what the majority of this film is going to be focused around, actor Tom Sturridge character, "Carl" a quiet young teenage who is sent aboard the "Rock Boat" to learn a lesson about life and how to become a man and how to do things right in life, this is certainly the last place on earth you would send a person to, with those aspiration for him in mind from his mother, played by Emma Thompson. We soon find out , from the leading man on the boat, Quentin, played by Bill Nighy, the Godfather of Carl, that this boat is basically Rock n' Roll in its most physical form . Soon after this scene; the film starts to relax and opens up, showing the audience all the different comical characters the film has to offer.

We quickly learn what all the characters do on the boat and what their behaviour is like, Nick Frost sticking out the most for me; being the most funniest person on the boat. Shortly after this we then learn that the government don't approve of, "Rock Radio" and appoint Minister Dormandy (Branagh) to demolish this pirate radio station. The film cleverly takes a pop at the British Government and does so very well, as Branagh does a brilliant job at playing the crazed politician with a mission to shut down this station at any cost. The majority of the film after that plays out quite well, the film kept me laughing through out. For me the film was especially funny when actor Ryhs Ifans joins the "Rock Boat", as he plays wild American DJ, "Gavin" who is brought in as a marketing plan for Rock Radio. Ifans plays this dirty, well dressed mad man, who brings a certain sexy humour to the screen. As the story progresses to its climax, we see that the members except young carl and how he becomes his own person.

The verdict, the film is 2 hours and 35 minutes long, personally for a comedy for me, that is too long. The film at the end goes on and on and kinda ends on a bit of a weak note, to oppose the rest of the film, don't get me wrong here, the film isn't ruined by the ending, not by a long shot, but for me it could have been better. Finally, last few points, acting was good, characters were well created and portrayed brilliantly, caught the era and generation the film was set in, brilliant soundtrack, well written and directed. The film for me was a good solid 3/5 and a return to form for Richard Curtis.

Hello World!

Hi there, this is my first post on blogger. I would just like to take this moment to do a quick run down of what my blog is going to be about and feature. The blog will consist of reviews from the latest in: Film, Television and Music. Now, I will be writing my opinion/review on each of areas just mentioned, and I will only be covering FTM which I wish to write about, and I do apologise if my taste in Film, Television and Music may not meet the same as others, but that's life, everyone has their own opinions, but I like of myself in having a vast taste of FTM, which will appeal to the majority. So please, enjoy my blog, spread the word of its existence, and please do comment, I want your opinion on my opinions.