TME MOVIE REVIEW: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Release Date: April 27, 2012 (3D/2D theaters)
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Director: Peter Lord
Screenwriter: Gideon Defoe
Starring: Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, Jeremy Piven
Genre: Animation, Family
MPAA Rating: PG (for mild action, rude humor and some language)
TME Rating: 3 of 5
If you haven’t heard much about this movie it probably means you haven’t been to the movie theatres in a while or checked out basic TV commercials. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, has been marketed in every single place you can imagine, I could have sworn I saw a plane fly over the beach pulling an ad for this movie.
The movie is brought to us by the same guys, and in the same manner, as the people who gave us Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run. The movie is animated by a method called “clay-mation” in which they use a clay-like material and take about 24 picture frames with minor movement to the characters for every second of the animation. As you can guess, it’s a very arduous process and it takes a lot of patience.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits stars Hugh Grant (Diary of Bridget Jones, Love Actually), as Pirate Captain (yes that is his name) who enthusiastically leads a “band of misfits”? I guess you can call them that. Pirate Captain has but a single dream, to win the famed Pirate of the Year award for once in his lifetime. Pirate Captain and his crew must overcome their own ineptitude as well as turn the other cheek to Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and avoid falling in both Charles Darwin’s (David Tenant) questionable plans and the Queen (Imelda Stauton) who abhors pirates above everything else.
The movie proves to be a worthy contender for your young’uns and even for yourself. Filled with slapstick and all kinds of gags, this movie can be a good choice to catch during the matinee or perhaps at home when it comes out for rental. I did overhear, from some people who left the theatre at the same time I did, that they believed it to be a bit too long. So be the judge for yourself, if you like Wallace & Gromit you may very likely enjoy this film.
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