Movie Review: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
At last Hugh Grant plays a likeable character! The Pirate Captain is on a quest to win the Pirate of the Year Award with the aid of his motley crew of pirates that includes Brendan Gleeson and Martin Freeman. They are as adventurous and plunderous as any pirate crew worth its salt and they think they’re in with a good chance. Their confidence starts to waiver however when rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and bad-to-the-bone Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) ride in on a wave of booty with their steels flashing. The Pirate Captain and his crew take to the high seas in an effort to get some serious pirating done to catch up with his competitors. Along the way they plunder a science ship where they find no gold but manage to pick up Charles Darwin (ooh David Tennant) and his very clever butler monkey. Darwin points out that there is something rather special about Pirate Captain’s parrot and convinces him to take her to a science fair in London, despite England being under the ruling thumb of the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton). You can imagine the rest.
I loved this. It’s funny, it’s witty and the Aardman claymation is spectacular in 3D. It has a lot more depth and expression than your average CGI animation. You can even see pores on Darwin’s nose. The humour is quintessentially British and adults and kids in the audience laughed their way through the entire movie. Think plasticine pirates do Blackadder. Some of the jokes were a bit over little kids’ heads and because the monkey speaks only in Bob Dylan style cue cards, the ability of everyone in your party to read is a prerequisite if you don’t want to be asked 3000 questions. Little kids did seem to like it but older kids and grown up kids were in stitches (some possibly helped along somewhat by the pre-screening grog). This one is definitely worth seeing in the cinema. In fact, I want to go again.
The Pirates! – In an Adventure with Scientists by Sony Pictures and Aardman in cinemas from March 28th.
About the Author
Jenny Foxe Always looking for something to do that will get me out of cooking dinner. http://www.overcomingmountains.wordpress.com