posted 11-15-2009 07:38 PM                       

Today Regal 15 in Eugene, #4, no presentation problems, very good in fact.

Who is the braintrust at Focus Features that decided to release this movie now? Idiot(s). In the face of 2012, it opened at #11 in the US and will have a *very* short run with New Moon on its heels. They probably had a "counterprogramming" strategy in mind. Epic fail.

This is EASILY one of the best movies I've seen this year. Highly entertaining, brilliant casting, novel premise, and on top of that the last 20 minutes had half the (smallish) audience BAWLING OUT LOUD! I expect that will be highly unexpected by anyone who ventures to see this and expects a pure comedy. PR finds a winning combination of 60s music and counter-culture behavior including attitudes toward sex; creates an ensemble of oddball but lovable characters; throws them all together on a so-called pirate radio station on a ship anchored off Great Britain outside the territorial limits. It works, very well too.

And what other movie out right now has a main character named Mr. Twatt?

I loved this. 4.5 out of 5 stars. Maybe it's a generational thing.

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle

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OK, the big climax scene is so over the top it's ridiculous. Did they get a discount on all the "big boat about to sink" water cannons and sets etc. used on Titanic? The decision to stage the sinking of the ship that way, in such great detail, in what is really a very small movie at heart, seems questionable. Hence I deduct half a star from my rating.

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posted 11-16-2009 09:02 AM                       

quote:

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With an initial running time coming in around three hours, many scenes were removed as the editing progressed solely for reasons of time. These include a sub-plot about a rival pirate broadcaster being sabotaged by the Radio Rock crew (featuring James Corden) and a flashback to Gavin's past explaining his return to the ship. Felicity also has a scene explaining her joining the crew to escape her fiancee and we learn more about Angus's reasons for believing the crew not liking him. All of these scenes have been included on most home video releases as deleted scenes introduced by Richard Curtis... Following the film's financial failure at the British box-office, Focus Features commissioned a re-edited version for North American release, retitled Pirate Radio. Curtis deleted approximately twenty minutes of footage from the original UK version to address complaints from several critics that the film's running time was excessive.

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posted 12-13-2009 07:26 PM                       

quote: Louis Bornwasser

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Amazing that the 25 year olds "got it" and laughed heartily.

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Although, come to think of it, this is a movie about an older generation not giving a younger generation enough credit.