Variety
For a script that relies more on character-driven than situational comedy, it’s the performances that count, and these are thankfully strong.
Full review
The Boat That Rocked
Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and the swinging '60s are up for a laugh in Richard Curtis' (Love Actually) feelgood ensemble comedy. It's about Radio Rock - one of the boats used to exploit a legal loophole and broadcast parent-baiting pop and rock 'n' roll to the UK from somewhere in the North Sea in the 1960s.
Stars Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost (Shaun Of The Dead/Hot Fuzz), Rhys Darby (Flight Of The Conchords) and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
2009135 minsUK
Comedy
- Director:
- Richard Curtis ('Love Actually')
- Writer:
- Richard Curtis
- Cast:
- Philip Seymour HoffmanBill NighyNick FrostRhys IfansRhys DarbyEmma ThompsonKenneth Branagh
The Boat That Rocked / Reviews
Urban Cinefile
Riddled with music of an era that reverberates with baby boomers and will lift its interest value. A little stretched and not always focused, the payoff is nevertheless a big one, with an uplifting sequence that perhaps should have been the ending.
Full reviewTotal Film
Curtis hangs situation and character comedy on a homage to rock’n’roll. That would be fine if it were funny, but auto-pilot Curtis prevails.
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Sunday Star-Times
It's as sickening as seven-metre swells on the Cook Strait ferry ride. And, at 129 minutes, almost as long.
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New Zealand Herald
It playlists to starboard. It playlists to port. It still doesn't rock.
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Newshub
The film was about an hour too long, the humour hit and miss, the set-ups too obvious and the disappointment immense.
Full review
Empire Magazine
A mix-tape of successes and failures, perhaps too light for its subject, but a silly, easy watch.
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Dominion Post
In between slumping deeper into my seat and muttering "Oh, for gawd's sake" at the film's ever more nakedly manipulative twists and turns, I still found myself enjoying the performances, the music, and the whole infectious likeability that Richard Curtis (Love Actually) brings to his projects.
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