The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)

Thanks for the memories!

Overrated and overhyped

One of my all time favorites.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

When I saw this film the first time around, I was inundated with a lot of "life stuff", and so I sat in the audience not really reacting to much of anything, and thinking and feeling that I could predict every gag and story point that came me. I was just in the wrong frame of mind, and so I failed to enjoy my first viewing.A few days ago I checked out the DVD, and man I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time.Yes, this is borderline cliché in terms of a Pirate-Genre send-up, but it has a lot of good British subtlety in the humor to be both very fresh and highly humorous. Everything from the expressions of background characters, to obvious names for characters, to the occasional British talent of understatement in the dialogue.There is no historical accuracy here, and the pirating is kept appropriately G-rated for a family outing, though the film and its humor occasionally skirt into PG territory.Surprisingly Hugh Grant plays the lead role of the Pirate Captain, and the Hobbit's own Bilbo Baggins in the form of Martin Freeman plays his first mate Number Two, showing the audience that indeed talented actors can do anything, even play stop motion animated pirates for a children's film.The big act III escapade is appropriately Aardmanesque (whom seem to take quite a few of their cues from Lucas's Star Wars and Indy Jones films) as we see the characters do battle to right wrongs and resume their brand of ill-conceived piracy.Good laughs, good animation, lots of subtle and intelligent humor mixed in with good old fashioned gags, this film should entertain everyone in the family on some level.Enjoy.

Such a very very weird movie for Aardman to make. So here's the plot: Hugh Grant plays a desperately, dangerously insecure mass-murdering moron who violently assaults and thieves from anyone he stumbles upon.One of the victims is Charles Darwin who, of course, is a nerd, who cares only for seeing a woman's boobs. (Coz - you know - he's a nerd! What an absolute loser!! He's into science and stuff! Like Wallace from off of Wallace and Gromit, and EVERYONE hates Wallace! Especially Aardman, apparently now...)And at that point it should all invert, and Darwin becomes the hero, but no. Grant's awful character carries on being the hero, by continuing being the absolute moron that he is. Obviously it's animated impeccably, and there's a few excellent jokes (though plenty is lifted wholesale from Muppet Treasure Island) and it was made in my home city, and I'm friends with one of the animators, so I don't say this lightly, but it's quite horrid compared with what Aardman usually is, and absolutely should be.And Darwin would *never ever* call a chimpanzee a "monkey"... I mean, what...??!!

For some reason I have kept putting off watching "The Pirates! Band of Misfits", which was a mistake from my part. Why? Well, because it turned out to be a really nice and entertaining movie for starters.The story is fun, filled with comedy, swashbuckling, booty and action. Although this is an animated movie, it appeals to an audience of all ages, given the various elements found in the movie. There is something for just about everyone here. And I was more than generously entertained all throughout the entire course of the movie."The Pirates! Band of Misfits" has some really colorful characters. And they are so well cut out and presented on the screen that you can't help but grow to love each of them for their individual charms and personalities. But an animated movie is only so much without a proper cast of talented voice actors and actresses, and they have managed to put together a great ensemble of people for this movie.What really blew me away was the sheer amounts of details, both grand and minute that was to be found throughout the entire movie. It was just mind boggling. The movie is well worth a second viewing, just to pay attention to the details in characters, costumes, sets and scenery. It must have been a tremendous amount of work put into this movie for the detailing along.If you haven't already seen "The Pirates! Band of Misfits", then I suggest you get to it, yer scurvy landlubber. This is great entertainment for all ages, arrrrr...

This is actually somewhat of a delightful stop-motion animation. However I can tell why it wasn't a hit at the box office. Mainly because it has lot of elements aimed for kids, but also has some slight adult elements that some very conservative movie watchers might not like their kids seeing. Especially the humor which is mainly directed towards adults. The plot doesn't really have the typical pirate adventure journey thing going on. Except the fact that The Pirate Captain wants to win the Pirate of the Year Award. It's however riddled with goofy and silly interactions between pirates and the people of London. I wanted to see more of the pirate elements in this, but with the direction of it all it just couldn't really have that in this. The pirate crew also could have had more development but it falls short. They were probably trying to save that for the sequels which was in the planning process, but so far won't be happening. They did the best they could with the running time restraint and budget, with the plot they were trying to cover. And the stop-motion animation for the most part is full of detail, and fluidity and bunch of stuff going on. The main negative is that it just doesn't really have anything that makes this movie stand out or has much originality to it. In another words, it's a nice watch, but just isn't really a satisfying movie. People that really really like British humor just might enjoy this one though for the whole family. I just wanted to go watch "One Piece" after seeing this.6/10