Pirates Shipwrecked: C-

Pirate Radio is shipwrecked in a sea of subplots. What could have been a nice interesting little movie if it had any interest whatsoever in what it was supposed to be about, turns into a bland middle of the road dramedy with no real drive, devotion, or drama.

And it's a real shame too because the immensely talented cast stacked with ringers like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh and Ryhs Dharby from Flight of the Conchords, does its best. But none of them have much of a character to work with.
They're all just one almalgous glob of "crazy" disc jockeys on a boat broadcasting rock and roll. I wanted these characters to live and breathe the music they were playing. I wanted it to affect their dna in some way but instead it felt like they were essentially generic characters in a bland dramedy with an oldies station playing in the background.

For the first hour and a quarter nothing much really happens. At one point, writer director Richard Curtis, seeming increasingly desperate to create some artificial tension, stages a climbing race up the mast. When the uninteresting overarching plot about the BBC's efforts to shut them down finally gets going in the third act I didn't really care.
nAnd the entire third act involving a shipwreck in the north sea feels forced and fake.

Pirate Radio: C-