The Pirates! Band of Misfits (B+)

Often considered to be the most unnecessarily abused form of punctuation, an easily avoidable way to add far too much enthusiasm to the conclusion of a sentence, there's always the powerful allure to include the slightly destructive exclamation point whenever possible! However, occasionally, even greater than the temptation of using one exclamation point (!), is the temptation of using two (!!), or three (!!!)! It's the writer's equivalent to an illicit, and highly dangerous drug! Though it's incredibly entertaining to use, it nearly demolishes the credibility and significance of the article it's featured in! For example, let's examine the exact paragraph you're currently reading! Sentence flow is extremely choppy, each newly established point seems slightly disconnected from the last, and everything seems to be in the written equivalent of an yell! Simply out of coincidence, the only two movies whose titles are exciting enough to feature an exclamation point (the other being the Norwegian teen comedy Turn Me On, Dammit!) ever to be reviewed on this site, are being published back-to-back! Is this much energy on "Film Crazy" at once a bad idea?! Maybe, but at least there's another quality movie to discuss!

Though Turn Me On, Dammit! used its titular title exclamation mark as part of an ironic joke, as the film itself was largely very somber and subtle, Aardman producer Peter Lord's (Chicken Run) claymation family comedy The Pirates! Band of Misfits embraces the ridiculous so enthusiastically that its flamboyant punctuation not only seems acceptable, but absolutely necessary. Based of British author Gideon Defoe's series of children's books (Defoe adapted the screenplay for the film as well), the film tells the story of a lovably egotistical pirate captain with the name "Pirate Captain" (Hugh Grant), as he attempts to win "The Pirate of the Year" award. Going off on several comedic tangents, it's clear Lord is far more interested in clever visual gags than any type of major dramatic plot, which is perfectly fine. The film flies so fast and furious with its jokes that it's near impossible to keep up; and there's the added bonus of a new Flight of the Concords song which sounds so similar to the generic music it's parodying that the laughs don't arise until after it's finished. The film is like a well oiled machine, unrelenting in its constant humor.

And besides, why would you want it to stop?

Grade: B+

 

*Once more, on the 2D vs. 3D war. Though I saw the film in 2D, there're several gimmicky gags which would definitely make the 3D worthwhile, while maybe not completely necessary. 2D is perfectly fine, but if seen in 3D, you probably won't be demanding your money back too quickly.