I had been wanting to see this tale of a fictitious pirate radio station playing rock and roll to England in 1966 since I saw the trailer and the amazing cast. And it was an enjoyable movie, though not amazing. Everyone was cast perfectly and they were great in it, but it felt a little lacking, but was still done incredibly well. Well directed and edited, just needed a little more meat on it’s bones, though still worth seeing for sure. Still depressing that England got to see a longer version of the film entitled the Boat that Rocked which did not do too well, so was cut down and changed for the US release. I would actually like to see the full version of the film, though the US release, just has the extra scenes as deleted scenes (which I did not know, and returned the Netflix blu-ray disc).

In England in 1966 the BBC only plays an hour of Rock and Roll a day, so Pirate Radio stations have popped up on ships in international waters, but still survived on local advertising. To this particular ship young Carl (Tom Sturridge) is sent to make something of himself, and stay with the ship’s Captain, and his godfather Quentin (the great Bill Nighy). On the ship is a ship is a whole crew of malcontents, led by the king of their little radio empire, the Count (Philip Syemour Hoffman) from America. Then their is Dr. Dave (Nick Frost) who takes a liking to Carl, and then there is Simon Swafford (Chris O’Dowd) and Angus (Rhys Darby from flight of the Concords). Rounding out the crew is Car’s idiotic roommate “Thick” Kevin, the only woman allowed to stay on board, the lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson) and the radio assistant Harold (Ike Hamilton). Much chaos and adventures ensue.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Once a month on the boat Quentin allows the DJ’s to bring women on board, and they all party. Dave tries to help Carl get laid for the first time, but it does not work out so well. And when Quentin brings his beautiful niece Marianne (Talulah Riley) on board for Carl to meet, Dave ends up sleeping with her too, though Carl really falls for her.

On the mainland Government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) plans to destroy all Pirate Radio, and enlists Twatt (Jack Davenport) to help take down pirate radio. They try and deprive it of it’s funding, but the people love pirate radio, so that doesn’t work. They then work on another way, involving pirate radios frequencies having stopped a sinking fishing boat from being rescued, and they decide to work on making the Marine Offenses Act which will illegalize Pirate Radio.

On the ship the man that the Count replaced when he went to AMerica, “The King” Gavin Kavanagh (Rhys Ifans) returns, and the two clash. Getting in dares that leave them both smashed and broken when they jump off the ships radio mast.

Simon who has never had a way with woman married the gorgeous Elenore (January Jones), but on his wedding night finds that she married him so she could move to the boat and be with The King, so the married is ended, and she is quickly kicked off.

Carl is talking to thick Kevin who thinks that Quentin must be his unknown father, and Carl asks his mother Charlotte (Emma Thompson) when she visits for Christmas, but she replies that it is in fact the hermit like night DJ Smooth Bob the “Dawn Treader: (Ralph Brown) who most of the crew didn’t even realize was on the boat.

When the Marine Offenses Act is passed, Pirate Radio is set to go off the air at Midnight, but the crew, and specifically the Count choses to defy it, and they set the boat in motion for the first time.

Twatt leads a raid but ends up raiding a fishing vessel that is where the pirate radio used to anchor.

The movement is too much for the boat though, and the engines give, and the boat starts to sink. The Count decides to go down with the ship as Carl goes down and saves Bob, who didn’t even know the boat was sinking.

As the boat goes down a fleet of boats arrives to save them, including a girl that Felicity had hooked up with, and the Count comes out from the deep, having survived.

The film ends with captions saying that by the summer of 1967 Pirate Radio was over, but now 299 stations play rock across the UK!

****

Enjoyable, though I want to see the original version. Still I enjoyed it, even if it is not as amazing as the cast would have led it to believe to be.