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Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 65 Ratings

  • Starring: Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Summary: Broadcasting live 24/7 from an old tanker anchored in the middle of the North Sea (just beyond British jurisdiction), Radio Rock sends out a vibrant and unifying signal to millions across the nation, ranging in age from wide-eyed pre-teens secretly tuning in long past their bedtimes to everyday people in need of a musical pick-me-up. The Radio Rock roster, overseen by unflappable station owner (and ship’s captain) Quentin, includes a risk-prone American known only as The Count; mystic deejay royalty Gavin; slyly amorous Dave; idiosyncratic New Zealander Angus; the rarely seen Bob; the aptly named Thick Kevin; lovelorn Simon; ladies’ magnet Mark; shy Harold; reporter News John; and lesbian ship’s cook Felicity. One night in 1966, Quentin’s teenaged godson Carl comes aboard. While Carl harbors romantic aspirations that he hopes will be fulfilled during one of the biweekly visits by Radio Rock’s prettiest fans, he also hopes to find out more about his long-absent father. (Focus Features)

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 31
  2. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. The best of it has the comradely, free-swinging bawdiness of Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H."
  2. 75
    Richard Curtis is good at handling large casts, establishing all the characters and keeping them alive.
  3. The real pirate radio ships, whose days ended in 1967, wound up being towed away for salvage but the film avoids that fate -- like the best rock songs -- with a rousing finish and a pleasing climax.
  4. Despite a title change from "The Boat That Rocked" to Pirate Radio, this British import exudes about as much outlaw swagger as Tom DeLay in a dance competition.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 37
  2. Negative: 10 out of 37
  1. phililq
    10
    I heard nothing about the movie but was there for pirate radio so of course I went. When the film started with my favorite group I was hooked. The ship is a stage with great actors, characters and non stop comical situations and lines. Expand
  2. BenitoD
    8
    Very very fun. perfect soundtrack.
  3. BobK
    7
    Entertaining, with a few nice surprises.
  4. This film purports to recreate, as it says in the opening scenes, 1966, a heyday of British rock'n'roll. Pirate radio was shut down in late 1967. So it is baffling that the movie is loaded with references to the late 60s and even the early 70s--in its characters, clothes, and songs, esp. (one Dj is an ancient, apparently 55-year old hippie, as though he teleported in from some 1990 film). Two songs associated with American top-40 radio in 1969 (released in late '68) are used as signatures of British Pirate Radio--the Turtles' "Elenore" and Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover." Yeh, when I think 1966 English rock, I think of the Turtles and Tommy James. Uh, no. These weird anachronisms are potentially forgivable, but the script is too full of other inanities to list: it scarcely has a plot, but is a sort of collage of idiotic, disconnected scenes and jokes. The film's real downfall is its script: 80% of the humor--I am not overstating the dumbness here--is a kind of reality-show, babbling toilet/ sex humor that would probably be abjectly eliminated from a Jackass movie. The often sundrenched, high contrast photography is nice and poignantly suggestive of what the film might have been, so I give this two stars. But the script is a no-star, frozen-dog-in-the-night "woof." I have no idea how Philip Seymour Hoffman ended up in this thing. This movie is beyond disappointing: it is rock-solid stupid. Expand

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