> The Boat That Rocked
Director: Richard Curtis
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, January Jones, Rhys Darby, Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Ifans, Tom Sturridge, Nick Frost, Jack Davenport, Chris ODowd, Tom Wisdom, Katherine Parkinson, Ralph Brown, Tom Brooke
Rating: (M)
Two stars
Reviewed by Christine Powley
The baby-boomer generation has a lot to answer for.
Yes, it was fun being young and groovy in the 1960s. Yes, the music was great, the fashions were eye-popping and they startled their parents, but do they have to bore the rest of us with endless tributes to how great they were?
The Boat That Rocked (Rialto and Hoyts) sounds as if it should be a laughathon: crazy guys on a boat in the English Channel playing that hip music the dull old government did not want people to hear.
The trouble is that there is no real plot.
See, there is this group of guys on a boat playing cool music and the government want to shut them down and that is about it.
I am not saying that it is not entertaining in spots but how many montages of actors dancing in a wild and crazy fashion do you need to see before you want to go home? I was done long before the director was.
The Boat That Rocked is a great idea for a television series.
In a half-hour format I would be more than happy to see this group of characters sleep with each other's girlfriends and indulge in meaningless stunts.
In a movie, I just did not care. The one thing I took out of the whole experience is that apparently men also resort to the heart-mending powers of chocolate biscuits. I always thought that was entirely a girly thing.
Well you live and learn, but it is slim pickings to leave a film with.
Best thing: The sound track is just brimming with fantastic music.
Worst thing: There is more Nick Frost nudity than any sane person could reasonably wish to endure.
See it with: Anyone far too young to remember the '60s because they will be more likely to buy this rose-tinted vision of 1966.
