That was an excellent one.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

"That's the whole point of being the government - If you don't like something you make it illegal" Pirate station Radio Rock - staffed by a ragtag crew of hip misfits broadcasts Rock 'N" Roll from a decrepit ship in the North Sea. They resist government attempts to ban them. Along the way they make lasting friendships and have a great time.Rock fans in the UK could only hear 45 minutes a day of popular music on the airwaves of licensed stations. It was not the staid Conservative Party in power at the time. A Labour government under Harold Wilson was into its second term. The progressive administration supposedly objected to pirate radio and Rock 'N" Roll. But there was never an attempt to ban Rock 'N" Roll as the narrative of this film continually implies the British government tried to do.In fact the government was actually trying to ensure its own domestic broadcasting remained under its control. The disciplines of the free market were an anathema to Labour government socialism leaving its licensed BBC stations unresponsive to popular trends and market correction. Losing advertising dollars to pirate stations caused the government to intervene.The popularity of Rock 'N" Roll on pirate radio led to it becoming the dominant format on licensed radio with disc jockeys from pirate stations being hired to ply their trade legitimately on public radio. There was not a crusade against Rock 'N" Roll. There was merely a market correction in UK broadcasting with minor, understated attempts at censorship.The pirate radio station owners and jocks weren't the heroic freedom fighters as they are depicted in this film. These were a group who made a quick buck off of a market trend whilst not paying royalties to play music and accepting bribes from record companies to play certain songs at the exclusion of others without proper regard to quality of content.There could be a very funny comedy made in telling this story. But that wasn't done here. This is not merely a bad movie. This is a bad movie that just won't quit. It leaves the viewer looking for an ending no matter how unsatisfying or baffling. This is the work of a director who evidently refused to allow it to be edited.

Other reviewers have said it all and very well. The whole thing is downright embarrassing. It seems to me this movie is hardly anything more than a rich catalog of gross macho clichés and randy fantasies about the sixties, seasoned with a great load of pitiful and obscene humour. It should probably rank high in the "American Pie" movie genre, but as a tribute to the era history, music and fight for freedom, this is but a failure of biblical magnitude. The characterization and the acting are about as subtle as a Monthy Python's. This mess of a movie made me positively cringe till I decided to jump off that stinking tub of a boat...

This is pretty juvenile. The characters, the dialogue, the interaction....it's much like a comic book. Caricatures abound and women are treated as sex toys – like in a James Bond movie. If you like frat party movies this one's for ya. We are annoyingly told over and over that the female member of the crew is a lesbian. It never goes beyond the basic plot of : Britain bans the playing of rock'n'rollguys (and one gal) on a boat off the British coast broadcast the illicit musicBritish government decides to terminate the rock'n'roll boat. That's all there is - for nearly 2 hours. The music is good – which brought my rating up. And the ending is a copycat of a much more famous movie which brought my rating back down.

To be fair to writer Richard Curtis, after the success he achieved with films like Love Actually and Notting Hill that adhere so tightly to a set formula I think that anything that moved away from that would struggle at the box office but this film is a disappointment, largely because it has such a good cast and the idea has potential.Sadly though what we end up with is lots of pointless scenes, more vulgarity than we're used to from a Curtis film and lots of good subplots without one big plot for them all to work around. The first twenty minutes and the last twenty minutes are probably the best and even the extensive use of classic pop music from the era can't save it.If you're looking for a good Richard Curtis film I'd point you in the direction of About Time which is far superior to this sinking ship.