The Boat That Rocked

A silly and very light movie with great songs and music from the 60's that will make you laugh with some “toilet” jokes or like me, make you laugh hard with the sometimes darkish comedy UK style. Meant to be a celebration of the real and infamous UK pirate radio stations, the film is entertaining if you like that era music, enjoy the many diverse forms of UK humor/comedy and like to watch good actors performing quite well silly roles that totally recreate a long gone era.

Tells the story of one boat anchored in the North Sea that has a 24/7 rock illegal radio station when in UK legal radio stations rock was transmitted only a few minutes (45?) a day. The radio station owner Quentin (absolutely great Bill Nighy) has gathered a group of heterogeneous DJ’s starting with American The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Gavin Cavanagh (fab Rhys Ifans), Doctor Dave (Nick Frost), Simple Simon Swafford (Chris O’Dowd) and other secondary characters that includes the only woman allowed in the boat because she’s lesbian and is the cook. Then we have Sir Alistair Dormand (great Kenneth Branagh) that is set to close all pirate radio stations and his killer man is Dominic Twatt (fun to watch Jack Davenport). The main story tells about Quentin’s godson, Carl, that after being expelled from school his mother sends him to spend some time at the sea so he can learn better ways. Obviously is a huge mistake because the boat is all about Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll or as the tag line reads: 1 Boat. 8 Djs. No Morals.

But the greatest moment in the story for me comes when Carl’s mother comes to the boat for a night and the mother is performed by none other than Emma Thompson that does a cameo role where you will not recognize her until she speaks as she looks so young and so good disguised with those big sunglasses.

Yes, this is a movie with many stories going on at the same time, which is nothing new to writer/director Richard Curtis better known for multiple-stories movies like great Love Actually. So be prepared to ride a long, crazy and very silly multiple-stories plot that will last for 129 minutes.

The lesbian interest arc is funny, but I do not suggest watching this movie just because of it as probably you will be disappointed and perhaps will believe that the secondary character represents a lot of clichés, as after all she was just “one of the boys”.

This is a movie I highly recommend for entertainment purposes and only if you really appreciate the so diverse styles of British comedy and the music/songs of a great long gone era.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion