Pirate Radio was pretty crappy - Strike 1 for Nick Frost (?)

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Saw this the other night and was pretty disappointed.  It feels like some mid-level Hollywood writer couldn't get his sitcom pilot picked up, so he just decided to string together a bunch of random scenes and vignettes from unfinished scripts.  The narrative is threadbare at best, and exists only to connect those scattered scenes and scenarios into something resembling a motion picture.  There's a cast of wacky characters, but none of them seem to get enough screen time to flesh things out.  Apparently the original title of the movie is/was "The Boat That Rocked", and it was a far more apt name.  The film isn't about rebels and their conflict with the British Government so much as it is about a bunch of music-loving dudes screwing around on the high seas.  I'd say it might have worked better as a sitcom except for the fact that you couldn't get such a great bunch of actors together for a low-budget TV project.  The actors are the only ones holding things together here though.

Actually, Nick Frost wasn't that bad -- mostly just under-utilized (as is Phillip Seymour Hoffman).  Still it's always nice to see that dude from Coupling get acting work.

[demi]

American version has footage cut and had its name changed. Dont plan on seeing it, bought the R2 DVD instead.

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What was cut out of the US version?

[Mr. Gundam]

I've got the UK Blu-ray on order.

[Great Rumbler]

What was cut out of the US version?

20 minutes. Although, the British version had about 40-50 minutes cut out of the original cut, which was nearly three hours.

[Bebpo]

What was cut out of the US version?

20 minutes. Although, the British version had about 40-50 minutes cut out of the original cut, which was nearly three hours.

I wonder which version I saw.  It was long, but I don't think it was 3 hours.

I thought the movie was fairly good based on the version I saw.

[Great Rumbler]

What was cut out of the US version?

20 minutes. Although, the British version had about 40-50 minutes cut out of the original cut, which was nearly three hours.

I wonder which version I saw.  It was long, but I don't think it was 3 hours.

I thought the movie was fairly good based on the version I saw.

The 3 hour version was never released in theaters, but most of the scenes surfaced again as deleted scenes on the British DVD/Blu-ray.

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Looks like most critics bashed the movie for being too long, and that's why the US release was cut......and even then US critics really didn't care for the length.  I was certainly checking my watch in the last 30 minutes.

That said -- if the movie had some kind of coherent narrative, a 2 hour run time would not be at all objectionable.  Instead it does feel a bit like a 2 hour sitcom.  I can't imagine what the 3 hour cut of the movie must be like.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Who actually thought this movie would be good?

[tehjaybo]

Who actually thought this movie would be good?

I had my hopes.

Does the UK Blu-ray version play on american players?  IE the PS3?  I don't know much about regions.