Viewed in
2011
Formats
HDTV
Premise
A period comedy about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960s.
Liked
Characters, rock music.
Disliked
Plot.
Thoughts
There were a lot of charming cast members and recognizable faces, including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. But the funniest performances came from Kenneth Branagh and Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean) as the uptight, somewhat-clueless authorities.
Not surprisingly, another cool part was the plethora of excellent 1960's rock music throughout. At times it was more fun to listen to the movie than watching it.
What didn't work was the story. Most of the time, not much happened, complications were inconsequential, and I couldn't tell most of the side characters apart. Then the whole movie got wiped out by an unnecessarily expensive climax that comes out of nowhere.
Despite its lack of an interesting plot, Pirate Radio was a nice movie to have in the background while doing busy work, only to pay attention when Branagh and Davenport are onscreen.
