Pirate Radio - Movie Review

If you love music you will love this movie. If you have any idea how hard it is to be a DJ and be able to play the music you want to play - you will love this movie. If you worked at a college radio station and know how hard it is to actually start a station - you will love this movie. If you hate government oppression and the hypocrisy of the cultural war foisted on the hippies who weren't looking to threaten anyone - you will love this movie.

Yes Kenneth Branagh's character is a parody but he plays it straight and it's not hard to imagine complete jackasses like him wielding their power because it gets them off. We have an abundance of politicians living in their insulated bubbles who think they are god in this country so you'll get the portrayal. I couldn't help but think of Cheney while watching Kenneth.

Also starring Bill Nighy an awesome actor of understated delivery. I recommend you delve into his other work out at Net Flix. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a top shelf actor, deep, and an all time favorite.

This is a fun, light romp. It is after all a movie made by a romantic comedy director. It could have (should have) been heavier handed so its a bit on the fluff side and might have been better served if it ramped up the real drama and effort, in getting the station started and the politics that were perhaps not so cut and dry. But Hoffman brings it home with the proper amount of righteousness from time to time.

Four stars for righteous rockin' rebellion, good tunes and an honest portrayal of the threatened minions of fear - who shiver in the face of freedom, hippies, and a more fair, sustainable, and equitable world but relish their power and control over things they don't understand or things that call into question their assumptions so readily assumed and their unquestioned life.

Desperately hang onto your power boys at the end of the day its your only friend.

The movie not as heavy as that diatribe and only based on the real events and forces at play nonetheless it is a portrayal ( a comic one) of those who strive for freedom superimposed onto the skeleton of reality. The movie still serves a worthy message about the pointless cultural war and the hypocrisy of "their" freedom. You are free if you act, dress and do like them.

For those of us not willing to sell out the struggle continues......