StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mike4920 I think this is a cute comedy - a clear variation made in 1982 of the Gilbert and Sullivan 'Pirates of Penzance'. This movie lends itself more to teenage girls. It is a fun movie! My daughter loved it - probably because it gave her someone to look up to or fantasize emulating. My daughter liked the costumes. There was no swearing, no blood or violence. It was good clean fun. The music and singing was a big hit for our family while watching it. The movie was not a big hit, the acting was not great, no-one got any big awards. But it was a feel good movie that was exciting for young teenagers to watch. It took a long time to come to DVD. I wish it was available on Vudu.

preppy-3 VERY loose send up of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance".Mabel (Kristy McNicol) falls in love with ex-pirate Frederic (Christopher Atkins). They want to marry but Frederic's pirate friends plan to attack Mabel and her family. Will Frederic side with his old pirate friends or protect Mabel and her family?No doubt about it--this is a BAD movie. The story rambles all over the place and it's full of groan-inducing jokes...but I loved it! Yeah the jokes are terrible but the whole cast is full of life and energy and pull them off. Also there are some good jokes (McNichol's asides to the audience are VERY funny) and the scenery was beautiful. The songs vary. Some are the original G&S songs with new lyrics (which will have purists cringing in horror). There's also some forgettable but pleasant 80s love songs (with hysterically bad love montages). Then there are the send ups of the 1970s and 1980s films scattered throughout. There's also some pretty explicit sex humor and plenty of homo erotica-all the pirates are shirtless and muscular and there are even a few gay pirate couples! As you can see this movie is all over the place but it's so much fun that I didn't mind! McNichol is sexy (believe it or not) and very good in her role. Ted Hamilton is excellent as The Priate King. As for Atkins...he was never a good actor but looks great with his shirt off! This was blasted when it came out and was regarded as a ripoff and pathetic. However it's acquired a cult following since then. This is the perfect summer movie for teenage girls and gay boys and men! Dumb but loads of fun. I give it an 8.

aurbano13 Peach, so glad there is someone else out there. My sister and I have loved this movie since 87 as well. After seeing it on t.v., my mother spent long pre-internet hours and a good amount of cash locating a copy on VHS for us because we had to have it. We knew all the songs by heart and even danced and acted them out. The movie is full of sexual innuendo that went over our heads and made Mom giggle. When I watch it now it is funny, silly and a wonderful indulgence. If you have daughters, let them check this one out. Yay for happy endings! And yay for a heroine who is independent, smart, awkward, honest and feisty! We can have it both ways.

MARIO GAUCI Rated a BOMB by Leonard Maltin, this is not really quite bad if certainly misguided – what was veteran British director Annakin thinking?: an old-fashioned pirate adventure, inspired by Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "The Pirates Of Penzance" (contemporaneously receiving the big-screen treatment), set to horrid electronic music. Yet, the thing is fitfully amusing in spots (often campily so)...Christopher Atkins is bland as the unwilling buccaneer hero, but tomboyish leading lady Kristy McNichol is cute (she even naively says "Ole'" instead of "Touche'" during the swordfights!). Ted Hamilton, then, is The Pirate King – whose matinée'-idol looks seem like a cross between Adam West and Randolph Scott! Scenes from Fox's classic swashbuckler THE BLACK SWAN (1942) with Tyrone Power actually play throughout the opening credits: it transpires to be a TV screening of that film – since the narrative here is given a modern-day framework, with the adventure within turning out to be a dream set off by the nerdy McNichols' visit to a pirate attraction! Apart from much romance and derring-do, we get a bumbling group of singing and dancing bobbies (cops) who constitute an obvious anachronism. Still, they're involved in one of the film's more inspired bits: during the climactic bout, they gang up on a isolated pirate – and one of them attempts to obscure the camera's viewpoint (recording the event, as it were)…which, of course, lampoons the usual expose' of police brutality!