Pirate Radio

2009 comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Somewhere off the English coast, some hell raisers broadcast bloody rock 'n' roll for the masses. A handful of politicians want to put a stop to it.

I thought this looked decent when it came out, heard that it wasn't decent at all, and was pleasantly surprised. Pirate Radio has lots to love. There's a great ensemble cast which includes the versatile Philip Seymour Hoffman, that one guy, that other guy, the always-hilarious Rhys Darby (Yes Man and The Flight of the Concords), that one guy who did the funny bit in that one movie, and Rhys Ifans (another Rhys; that might break my record for most actors named Rhys in one movie). Seriously, I kept seeing actors I nearly recognized in this movie, people I knew had been funny in other things. This was almost like a more raucous Wes Anderson movie. It's narratively uneven, perhaps a little too episodic. The scenes often seem like a collection of jokes, and not all the punchlines are that funny. But for the most part, this cheeky little movie sails along quickly enough and entertains with its caricatures, its irrelevancy, and its loose-goosey, playful structure. And that soundtrack? It's packed to the gills with the rawk! I might be a bit of a sucker for movies with lots of characters who don't do much of anything except talk over each other (see: lots of Robert Altman movies), and Pirate Radio is about the most entertaining a movie about characters being bored out of their minds can be.