Reviewing The Boat That Rocked for us over Cinema Blend's UK branch, Stuart Wood wrote that the movie was "a slight but immensely enjoyable tribute," but also noted that "If the movie suffers from anything, it’s a bloated running time." Apparently everyone else in the UK agreed with him, and instead of releasing the movie as-is in August, Focus Features has picked up the film and will retool it for a November release.
The film, which cost $50 million, grossed only $9 million in its home country of the UK, and has made $25 million worldwide. Focus president James Schamus told Variety that their plan is to cut about 20 minutes from the film, which ran at 129 minutes in its first theatrical release. "It will be a shorter, leaner version. We think it is a real crowd-pleaser. We love a challenge, and we love working with Working Title."
Film critics, I hope we can recognize what this means-- we won! We (or, well, you-- I haven't seen the movie) complained about one very specific thing in a film, and it's actually going to be changed as a result! I have no idea if a better movie can come out of a shorter version of The Boat That Rocked, but it has to be worth a try, right?
