Movie Review: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
So, having nothing better to do, we went out to the cheap theater to check out the latest Aardman creation.
Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is beloved by his crew, but he wants respect from the pirate community by winning the Pirate Of The Year award. Unfortunately, he's overshadowed by his competition, Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven). Captain is despondant, until he raids the ship of Charles Darwin (David Tennant), who points out his "parrot" is actually a Dodo. Darwin convinces Captain that presenting the Dodo in London will give him the loot needed to win the Pirate Of The Year competition. But, will it really? And can he and his crew avoid the clutches of Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), who really, really HATES pirates.
The amount of mileage you get out of this film will vary in how much you can handle the filmmakers doing sick and wrong things to historical figures. Forget history (the filmmakers definitely do) and just roll with the silliness. The other possible complaint is that we get a bunch of pirates who don't do much piraty things. You don't expect a film about pirates to be mostly in London with the crew trying to pretend that they are really scientists. So, coming from that direction, I can see people getting lost.
That being said, it is what we've come to expect from Aardman and while I don't think it is their strongest film, it has a lot to entertain people with. The bear definitely liked the film.
Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is beloved by his crew, but he wants respect from the pirate community by winning the Pirate Of The Year award. Unfortunately, he's overshadowed by his competition, Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven). Captain is despondant, until he raids the ship of Charles Darwin (David Tennant), who points out his "parrot" is actually a Dodo. Darwin convinces Captain that presenting the Dodo in London will give him the loot needed to win the Pirate Of The Year competition. But, will it really? And can he and his crew avoid the clutches of Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), who really, really HATES pirates.
The amount of mileage you get out of this film will vary in how much you can handle the filmmakers doing sick and wrong things to historical figures. Forget history (the filmmakers definitely do) and just roll with the silliness. The other possible complaint is that we get a bunch of pirates who don't do much piraty things. You don't expect a film about pirates to be mostly in London with the crew trying to pretend that they are really scientists. So, coming from that direction, I can see people getting lost.
That being said, it is what we've come to expect from Aardman and while I don't think it is their strongest film, it has a lot to entertain people with. The bear definitely liked the film.