Find somewhere where you can see the incomprehensible French family drama while, at the same time, they are enduring "The Boat that Rocked". That's the good thing about multiplexes. Reviews and word of mouth (for TBTR) have all been terrible. I suspect the Massive will give this stinker a very wide berth (sic), but the teens may get a kick from Rhys Ifans doing his thing.

But I refer you to Richard Herring's comments here:

http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=2354

Don't think he was that keen....

...."Let The Right One In" instead. It's Swedish (box ticked for arthouse),it's a coming of age drama (tick for teenagers)
, it has vengeful cats (ditto, especially when they look like lol cats) and it's brilliant (tick for everybody)

Oh, and it's a vampire film. With a very dark "Jaws" joke at the end...

Get a large set of pliers and start pulling out your toenails one by one. This will be more fun than the film !! It's a complete stinker.

But Mark Kermode (whose opinion on films is usually pretty reliable for me) liked it despite all the baggage of it being a Richard Curtis film. Don't expect great art but do expect a laugh or two.

...which Richard is more annoying - Herring or Curtis.

if my teenager was willing to be seen in public with me - I say go for it on that basis alone. You can always have a little nap if you get bored.

Well, I decided to go (probably against my better judgement) and it was excruciating. The girls thought it was awful too, which was some compensation. Where were the likeable characters? The DJs wre portrayed as idiots, or sleaze-bags, or at best, so far up their own sphincters that they did not really register in my consciousness. Bill Nighy sets up his own niece as a sex toy for morally bankrupt dirt bags to play with, for christsakes; Rhys Darby,'Murray' from 'Flight Of The Conchords', looks as though he will be eternally typecast - a la Ricky Gervais - and in this vehicle, without the sustaining irony of 'FOTC', is left to flounder (literally); and Kenneth Branagh...well don't start me off there.The rest of the cast are equally responsible for the abomination that is 'The Boat That Rocked'. Even the automated projection equipment found it objectionable and shut down twice during the session!

What annoyed me most is that the film undermines the legacy of those pirate DJs who influenced modern music so deeply, by representing them as ego-maniacal, lecherous tossers - and that's not how rock'n'roll heroes should be seen, is it?

Go and see Watchmen instead....

As KCGrady points out above, it truly does a disservice to the likes of Tony Blackburn, John Peel and Emporer Rosko...

Mrs W is a fan of the Curtis oeuvre, so it was our monthly, kids free, night out last week. Like many of Curtis' films, it seems stuffed with, on paper, terrific actors, a decent outline of a story and then falls flatter than a seven day old McDonalds' pancake.

Fresh from saying Susan Boyle is quite good, I went off, with Mrs Path and 2 friends to see the film last night. And what was there not to love? An ever so slight change of style for Curtis, I felt this showed his enormous love for the music off, together with largely affectionate parodies of the DJ "types" we have become familiar with, if not necessarily liked, over the years. Branagh gave a fabulous performance, knocking even Bill Nighy off his ususl best thing on screen position, and the majority of the supporting cast gave able flesh on the bones of their characters. So it was not "accurate", so it was somewhat naively gauche at times, so it aimed and hit many obvious cinematic targets, lighten up, it was (shhh) entertainment.
And this is the bit that gets me, for a website of 35-55 year old fellas, in the main, obsessed with music, I find it hard to believe that most of us could and would not identify with, in our dreams, with at least 3 or 4 of the DJs. I know I did. And might secretly wish their (fantasy) lives were our own (fantasy) lives. Sadly, for all the wishes to be the babe magnet cool dudes, I suspect most of us would actually be the prog and west coast loving "Bob", with his mentions of Spirit, the Dead and Muddy Waters, sinking underwater to save being parted from his beloved Quintessence and Quicksilver Messenger Service LPs. (Yes, I was doing a mini "Deface the Music" quiz on his stash as it floated away!)
No mere apologist for this film, I'm celebrating it. And recommending it!
Soundtrack looks good, too, but most of us should have most of the songs already, I would imagine. O, apart from the appalling and unecessary remauling of "Stay with me, baby", caterwauled by Duffy over the credits. Thank christ the original is also there for comparison.

sometimes reviews that are meant to be positive just put you off even more....
If Branagh is the best thing in it I'm staying home with the toenail clippers, tvm.

Well my 14yo daughter and her mates went off to see it yesterday, despite prior subjection to my rambling exposition of the cultural context, and they liked it!

where the fuck have you been? Another sane voice back on the site - thank God for small mercies. I thought it was hilarious - it is light entertainment not high art and we should take it for what it is. Great bit of fun and Branagh was very good. Only gripe I had was calling the man from the Government Twatt - I thought that was too contrived. Soundtrack was marvellous too. I think a sense is sadly lacking in these parts.