Review: Pirate Radio

If you've seen the movie Almost Famous, then Pirate Radio will seem all too familiar. Like the first film, a teenage boy gets thrown in with a bunch of older, wiser rock-and-rollers who show him the ropes of the industry while he falls in love and comes of age. The neophyte Carl, played by the adorable Tom Sturridge, finds himself on board the British tanker where "Radio Rock" broadcasts from the middle of the North Sea in 1966.

What makes the station so popular? Rock and roll music is banned from the airways at home, so the ragtag bunch of DJs comprised of mostly Brits with one feisty American (Fairport native Philip Seymour Hoffman) take their show to sea where listeners from all over the country can still tune in and rock out to the latest hits 24/7.

The premise of the movie is simple - Radio Rock must stay on the air, forcing the crew to outsmart the government officials trying to stop it. They do this by winning the hearts of a wide-ranging audience, including teens, schoolchildren and adults.

Most of the film is set to a classic soundtrack of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Kinks and many others. I found this as the most appealing element in the entire film, and was disappointed by the lack of plot. People dig Radio Rock at home, some stiff government official gets mad and everyone on board the vessel tries to get laid. That's it.

With such a stacked cast including Hoffman, Rhys Darby (Murray from Flight of the Conchords), the hilarious Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shawn of the Dead) and the smooth Bill Nighy, I was disappointed by the overall shallowness of the performance.

Even the attempt to create conflict between the crew's unspoken ringleader known as The Count (Hoffman) and his slimy archrival, Gavin (Rhys Ifans), falls flat since their dislike for each other is so quickly resolved.

This isn't extremely detrimental, however, since the scenes showing the DJ camaraderie are mostly funny. It's just that I wanted more than a few romantic subplots and an amusing game of charades to accompany the plot, which had so much potential. Instead, it dragged on and had laughs that were few and far between.

In April 2009, the film was written and directed by Richard Curtis and released in Great Britain with the name The Boat that Rocked. It was a box office flop, and after a second round of editing, it was re-released in November in North America, only to have the same fate.

Perhaps it was its dependence on crude humor to carry it, or seemingly nonexistent character development that made this film fall short of being something memorable. Nevertheless, it had a colorful setting combined with great British pop rock and a decent variety of quirky characters.

Hoffman delivers a strong performance, but it was ironically familiar to his role as rock journalist Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. If you're a fan of Focus Feature films, then you'll probably enjoy Pirate Radio. It promises plenty of fun as long as