Customer Reviews

Pirate Radio

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This film has just come out in the UK. For once, we (in the UK) got this film released here first. Its usually the other way round! Absolutely loved this film from beginning to end. It captures the essence of that era perfectly, and it is a film I could watch again and again. The whole cast's acting was superb throughout. My biggest surprise came from Rhys Ifans who portrayed the sex god DJ Gavin fantastically. What a sexy voice for the radio - shame I can't mention one DJ on air at the moment who sounds the same...!

Unfortunately, I myself, was born in 1979, so wasn't around in that decade. However I took my mum to see this film as she was 21yrs old in 1966. She remembers listening to the pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea, and remembers all the political controversy surrounding it. She thought it was a great film too.

If you appreciate the best music of all time, proper rock n roll from the 60's/70's, then you will love this film. It's a real feel good movie that you will appreciate if you ever wished you had lived through that era, or you were lucky enough to experience it first hand.

I am heartbroken! When I originally watched Pirate Radio I didn't realize it was the UK version. It was fantastic, the story, the music everything I couldn't wait till it came out on dvd. Then when it finally came out I couldn't find it anywhere to buy it. Not even Walmart was carrying it in their stores which I thought was strange. Finally I came to Amazon and bought mine. Wow what a butchered piece of crap. I don't know why the 2 dvd's are so different. Yeah the dvd's do contain the deleted scenes, most of which were included in the UK version but it's not the same. If you are going to buy Pirate Radio do yourself a huge favor and find a way to get the UK version. Watch out for the coding for your dvd player as UK dvd's don't play in USA dvd players, but from what I understand you can get the blue ray and get the UK version that way.

What a way to butcher a movie that was so great!!!! Someone seriously needs smacked for this one!

Pirate Radio sports a stellar cast including
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Emma Thompson (all too brief appearance)and Kenneth Branagh. When rock and roll exploded in the UK, the government and radio stations banned play over the airways. Rogue radio stations broadcast from ships offshore. Pirate Radio captures the exuberance and the bigger than life radio personalities that emerged with the new culture. Rated R for profanity and sexual situations, this film is full of laughs and any weaknesses are compensated for with an awesome soundtrack. Great way to spend an evening.

In 1966, a mad mod monastery of mostly male crew with one token lesbian as cook sail the North Seas on a boat. Their mission is to broadcast rock and roll to the UK 24/7. They're led by Quentin (Bill Nighy) and The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ. Of course, their vows are drugs, sex (but only twice a month when a ship of girls comes on board) and rock and roll.

Sir Allister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) doesn't like the broadcasts, which he sees as damaging the moral fiber of the UK's young and as a government member, he's set out to take the ship off the air. As he says, "If you don't like something, you simply make it illegal." He and his faithful sidekick, Twatt (Jack Davenport) start their nefarious plans by trying to stop the station's advertisement, then when their signal allegedly interferes with a maritime distress signal, they work to make the channels illegal.

The music's the best of 60's rock from Dusty Springfield's 'white soul' to The Who. The lines will have you roaring with laughter. The film's R rating is justified for language, drug use and some nudity. I cannot say I have laughed so hard or enjoyed the music from a soundtrack so much in years. This is one film I will be purchasing and watching every year or so when I need a good laugh.

Rebecca Kyle, November 2009

Just got back from London Apr. 14th and saw this over there. It was great!! Great cast, great music and great fun. Everyone in mmmmy gggeneration should see it, you'll be sorry if you don't.

IF you want to know what it was like to listen to your radio in the mid 60's in Europe, buy this movie!

My family moved to Brussels in early 1964 when I was a teen. At that time, in early 1964 all I had to listen to was Radio Luxemburg. That station only played the first minute of any rock song, I have no idea why. In the summer of 1964 Radio Caroline started up, a pirate radio station. There were two of them, one in the North Sea and one south of England. I listened to radio caroline south all the time. They not only played a whole song, they actually played songs from everywhere, the west to east coast of America and British songs. This movie portrays the station as kinda crude in their language. Truthfully....YES! I will never forget New Year's Eve 1964 at 11pm, lying in my bed listening to them and hearing things I NEVER heard on American radio. I was lying there in pain trying not to laugh too loud for my parents to hear me as I heard their jokes. There were two DJ's on that night until midnight, both drunk!

The person who started Radio Caroline was an American and he named them for Caroline Kennedy. The radio control room you see in the movie is an exact replica of the control room on Radio Caroline.

Though this movie is fiction, the truth is that there was a wedding performed on Radio Caroline North and Radio Caroline South did sink in a force 10 gale, much to the glee of the British government.

This movie shows the audience exactly what it was like in Europe in the mid 60's with the freedom of pirate radios, like nothing America ever had, or the world will ever have again!

I saw the movie before they cut so many scenes out and after and I have to say it was a better movie before they deleted so many scenes. The bachelor party...the banter when the DJ's were climbing...so many deleted scenes! I think so many people feel the movie was disjointed because it was ruined after it was changed so much. A shame I think.

I think this is the best (and funniest) movie by Richard Curtis since "Four Weddings And A Funeral," and I've loved them all (Notting Hill, Love Actually, and so on). Terrific cast of characters, nifty plot with surprising twists, nice cinematography (including well-done hand-held camera work, which emphasizes the rocking of the boat, but only noticeable at first, when young Carl first comes aboard), and a good bit of the best music of the era. The ensemble acting is fabulous (like so much of British movies & TV), though I especially liked Bill Nighy's character. Just a great experience. I plan to see it again in the theater, and get the DVD when it comes out.

If you love the music of the sixties and occasionally wax nostalgic when thinking about (or remembering) the crazy antics, fashions and moral ambiguities of this decade then the 2009 release 'Pirate Radio' is the movie for you. The film more than just succeeds in capturing the emerging, rebellious spirit of the times and the rigid, social structure that viewed this 'new music' and accompanying lifestyle choices as such a threat to the fabric of existence. The prevailing mindset of both sides were well defined, quirky and humorous, yet telling at the same time. Ah, the British do have a way with comedy, don't they?

What really set this film apart for me was the extraordinary, off-the-wall cast of characters floating about on the high seas while devoting themselves to delivering the rock and roll gospel to the masses on shore. It's definitely the antics, verbal rantings and altogether dysfunctional personalities of this insane group of DJ's and assorted rock junkies that make this film a memorable, thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience.

Get one today! This is cute, witty, and a feel good sort of silly. This story has just a creamy delicious middle of fun times and kooky characters and with the whole British theme it makes for a splendid movie night. Great music that was changing the world at the time, simple and fun characters, along side a coming of age moment in music. This one will stay in the collection.