Pirate Radio gives a glimpse at the struggles, adventures and misadventures of a small group of rebels to bring pop and rock music to the masses of the UK during the 1960s, leaving a trail of sex, drugs, and of course, Rock & Roll in their wake. At its heart Pirate Radio shows the passion for music and the determination of 8 DJs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman as head DJ "The Count") and their crew to "spread the love" in the middle of the North Sea on a beat-up old ship.

The crew faces political (and other) obstacles on their way to musical freedom however. One politician in particular (Kenneth Branagh) makes it his mission to shutdown the "filth", as he sees it, from being broadcast and enlists the help of a lackey to help him build a case against the operation.

For the most part this movie is about the group as a whole, but will occasionally delve deeper into the lives of individual members, such as in the case of the newest member of the crew: Young Carl (Tom Sturridge). Carl's story is a coming of age tale. Never having known his father Carl's mother (Emma Thompson) sent him onto the ship to be with his godfather and captain of the ship, Quentin (Bill Nighy), to sort him out from his rebellious ways at home, not that this ship is anyplace to get away from rebellious ways.

Friendships are formed, strengthened and strained throughout the journey but everyone shares the same passion in rock music and it's quite obvious that the group will do all in their power to make sure that it's heard. This movie was surprisingly funny, which I didn't expect from the trailer, but I was certainly not disappointed. This is a great movie with a great soundtrack that I recommend everyone check out.

I'll start by saying that I was a fan of the original 1977 The Hills Have Eyes film written and directed by Wes Craven, so my opinion of the remake is no doubt colored by that fact (come on, who doesn't love Micahel Berryman as Pluto?).

I was not so keen on seeing this movie when I first heard about it, as I'm not big on remakes (especially remakes of what I consider to be good movies), but eventually I decided to give it a go. Besides, in the worst case scenario a bad horror movie will always win out over pretty much anything Hollywood has to offer these days. In any case I went into The Hills Have Eyes with rather low expectations.

Casting - Unremarkable for the most part, though I always enjoy Ted Levine in pretty much any role. But really, who watches a horror movie for the casting?

Plot - If you've seen the original there aren't many surprises. "Family trip gone wrong in the middle of a town of freaks" pretty much covers it.

Effects - This is one area that I enjoyed. While not the best effects of the genre I think in many cases it was an improvement over the original which to be honest is expected. The gore level was about right.

Overall the movie met my low expectations and came nowhere near matching the awesomeness of the original. If you haven't seen the original and are wanting to watch this one, definitely side with the original and perhaps watch the remake for a comparison.