Little Carl (Tom Sturridge) is sent away from his starlet of a mother to go live with his godfather in the hopes that he will straighten out a bit (apparently he has been in a few fights and has been caught smoking on more than one occasion). While this seems like a good idea initially, it doesn't really make sense in the long run since his godfather, Quentin (Bill Nighy), runs a pirate radio station broadcasting to millions of British citizens.
The ship's DJ crew contains The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who is the station's biggest draw, Doctor Dave (Nick Frost), Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke, who plays a excellent dunce), Simple Simon (Chris O'Dowd), Angus Nutsford (Rhys Darby), the station's comedic side, straight-laced News John (Will Adamsdale), sultry late-night DJ Midnight Mark (Tom Wisdom) and early-morning hippy Bob Silver (Ralph Brown). There are several side and parallel stories that occur during the film, but the main plot follows the government's attempts to get the station off the air for good. This task is led by Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) and his assistant, Dominic Twatt (Jack Davenport, FlashForward). Yes, there are quite a few low-brow jokes at his name ... especially in the deleted scenes.
One of these side stories come about when Dormandy and Twatt effectively cut off Rock Radio's advertising and the station re-hires a former DJ of theirs that really drags in the crowds, Gavin Cavanagh (Rhys Ifans). There is immediate friction between the station's current top-performer, The Count, and its previous one (and now savior), as The Count and Cavanagh end up playing a game of chicken by seeing who will climb up the mast the highest before backing down. Another side-story involves Carl's budding romance with Quentin's niece, Marianne (Talulah Riley). They have a bit of a rocky start, especially since her fandom of Doctor Dave leads her into his bunk, but it's a nice piece to the overall Bro-mantic Comedy flick (because it really is about a bunch of guys who are trying to get along on a rock-and-roll boat). A few more twists show up when Simple Simon gets married (but for a surprisingly short amount of time) and when Carl's mom (Emma Thompson) visits the boat and Carl realizes that his time on Radio Rock might be for more reasons than a hiatus from school.
Besides the great cast and the film's excellent soundtrack (which permeates both the background music and the tunes the DJ's play), the Blu-ray release of Pirate Radio contains special features that will keep you entertained long after the credits roll. There is an additional 45 minutes of deleted scenes that Writer/Director Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill and tons of classic Mr. Bean and Blackadder works, for those long-time British comedy fans) hated to take out of the movie, which he will tell you in just about every intro to the deleted scenes. There are also featurettes on getting the cast together, selecting the music, teaching the cast how to be DJs and even one on the gimble-based set that was the boat for the movie and how the various actors felt about it. One of the more amusing featurettes is the making of a scene that was actually removed from the final version where Quentin and the gang walk into Midnight Mark's room after he has finished um... spending time... with a few dozen girls. There are only a few benefits to the Blu-ray version, and those include a couple more deleted scenes and the better video/audio quality, but considering the film's music-centric theme, that might be enough for you to choose the higher-definition release of the DVD.
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when I learned this movie wasn't based on a specific pirate radio station, and maybe a bit of the magic of the film lessened when I realized that (especially since the box claims it to to be "inspired by true events" ... and in a sleazy marketing/used-car salesman sort of way, I guess it is), but I still enjoyed the overall experience. There were quite a few scenes that I'm sure people feel could have been cut to get to more of the meat of the story, but a lot of the scenes that aren't directly related to the plot help to give you a lot of information about the characters and who they are. Pirate Radio isn't for everybody, and the only people who will truly appreciate it might be those who lived through the times and had to sneak off to listen to the music, but speaking as a person who is most definitely not from that time, it is a fun flick that is worth at least a rental.
