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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Peaky Blinders - Season 2 in TV
Sep 7, 2019
A blinding second series
It’s not often that second series can quite meet up to the first, but Peaky Blinders manages to pull it off. It’s as violent, dark and gritty as the first series with a plot that actually surpasses the original. There are some wonderful performances yet again from Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory especially, plus some great newcomers in Finn Cole and Tom Hardy. I found Hardy’s role to be potentially a little OTT, but he was hilarious in comparison with the serious Peaky Blinders and I wish he’d been on screen in this series more. The entire series was just hugely enjoyable from start to finish, and I liked how the series jumped on 2 years from the original as it really helped to move it on the story.
My only criticisms would be the cliff hanger from the end of series 1 is briefed over a little too quickly, and that Noah Taylor’s “bad guy” isn’t as threatening as he first appears and is a little lacklustre, it’s just fortunate he isn’t needed much to bolster the plot.
My only criticisms would be the cliff hanger from the end of series 1 is briefed over a little too quickly, and that Noah Taylor’s “bad guy” isn’t as threatening as he first appears and is a little lacklustre, it’s just fortunate he isn’t needed much to bolster the plot.
Darren (1599 KP) rated Bachelor Party (1984) in Movies
Jul 19, 2019
Verdict: Wild Party
Story: Bachelor Party starts when Rick (Hanks) announces to his friends, Jay (Zmed), Rudy (Diamond), Gary (Grossman), Ryko (Dudikoff) that he is going to marry his girlfriend Debbie (Kitaen), which means one thing for the guys, a bachelor party. Rick is trusted by Debbie, but her father Ed (Grizzard) doesn’t like him and wants his selection Cole (Prescott) to marry his daughter.
With the bachelor party underway, the boys think they are going to have a couple of strippers, few drinks and a good time, only for Cole to bring problems to the party in his attempts to break up the couple, meanwhile Debbie is having her own quieter party with her friends, which is also in Cole’s plans.
Thoughts on Bachelor Party
Characters – Rick is considered a bit of a slacker, he drives a school bus and hasn’t ever put his life into any order, he does however decide to marry his girlfriend against her father’s wishes, he is used to getting abused by people who look down on him, though he is the friend that will always be there for a friend in need. Debbie is the future bride, she comes from a rich family which she is tired of the lifestyle that looks down on people and sees the pure nature in Rick. Jay is the best friend that is always trying to get Rick in trouble, he loves to party too. Ed is the father of Debbie, he always looks down on Rick never seeing him as good enough for his daughter and wants to end the relationship before it gets started.
Performances – Tom Hanks is the clear standout in this film, you get to see how he has a different level of acting abilities than most people in the film being able to do the sleazy moments, while bring a human friendship figure to life. The rest of the cast do work for their roles, the party animals work well, the upper-class characters and the one trying to steal the girl work too.
Story – The story here follows a slacker that is going to marry the love of his life, but before he must have a bachelor party which soon gets out of control. This film doesn’t have the deepest story, it dives into the idea parents don’t always approve of the potential loved ones, your friends will want you have one last mad night before you get married and needing to avoid the person trying to take apart you life. This is everything that we know from the wild party film, it plays out like a checklist without being anything new, but easy to enjoy.
Comedy – The comedy in this film enters us into the wild party, we get to see how things go wrong, they will get us laughing at times even if certain jokes might not have aged well.
Settings – The film is set in a hotel room for the party, we get to see how the guests get themselves into trouble through the night, looking for extra people to join the party.
Scene of the Movie – 3D experience.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The donkey.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun 80s party movie, which bought us an early role from Tom Hanks, it is everything you expect and can be a good time for all.
Overall: Simple, fun and entertaining.
Rating
Story: Bachelor Party starts when Rick (Hanks) announces to his friends, Jay (Zmed), Rudy (Diamond), Gary (Grossman), Ryko (Dudikoff) that he is going to marry his girlfriend Debbie (Kitaen), which means one thing for the guys, a bachelor party. Rick is trusted by Debbie, but her father Ed (Grizzard) doesn’t like him and wants his selection Cole (Prescott) to marry his daughter.
With the bachelor party underway, the boys think they are going to have a couple of strippers, few drinks and a good time, only for Cole to bring problems to the party in his attempts to break up the couple, meanwhile Debbie is having her own quieter party with her friends, which is also in Cole’s plans.
Thoughts on Bachelor Party
Characters – Rick is considered a bit of a slacker, he drives a school bus and hasn’t ever put his life into any order, he does however decide to marry his girlfriend against her father’s wishes, he is used to getting abused by people who look down on him, though he is the friend that will always be there for a friend in need. Debbie is the future bride, she comes from a rich family which she is tired of the lifestyle that looks down on people and sees the pure nature in Rick. Jay is the best friend that is always trying to get Rick in trouble, he loves to party too. Ed is the father of Debbie, he always looks down on Rick never seeing him as good enough for his daughter and wants to end the relationship before it gets started.
Performances – Tom Hanks is the clear standout in this film, you get to see how he has a different level of acting abilities than most people in the film being able to do the sleazy moments, while bring a human friendship figure to life. The rest of the cast do work for their roles, the party animals work well, the upper-class characters and the one trying to steal the girl work too.
Story – The story here follows a slacker that is going to marry the love of his life, but before he must have a bachelor party which soon gets out of control. This film doesn’t have the deepest story, it dives into the idea parents don’t always approve of the potential loved ones, your friends will want you have one last mad night before you get married and needing to avoid the person trying to take apart you life. This is everything that we know from the wild party film, it plays out like a checklist without being anything new, but easy to enjoy.
Comedy – The comedy in this film enters us into the wild party, we get to see how things go wrong, they will get us laughing at times even if certain jokes might not have aged well.
Settings – The film is set in a hotel room for the party, we get to see how the guests get themselves into trouble through the night, looking for extra people to join the party.
Scene of the Movie – 3D experience.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The donkey.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun 80s party movie, which bought us an early role from Tom Hanks, it is everything you expect and can be a good time for all.
Overall: Simple, fun and entertaining.
Rating
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020
A Fun Family Film For Everyone
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a 2019 adventure comedy movie directed by James Bobin and producer Kristin Burr, with screenplay by Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson from a story by Tom Wheeler and Nicholas Stoller. It is a loose based continuation and live-action adaptation of the kids show created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes and Eric Weiner and produced by Paramount Players, Nickelodeon Movies, Walden Media, Media Rights Capital and Burnt Productions with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Isabela Moner, Eva Longoria, Michael Pena, Jeff Wahlberg and Eugenio Derbez.
Spending her days going on adventures with her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), her monkey friend Boots (Danny Trejo) and imaginary friends "Map" and "Backpack", Dora (Isabela Moner), daughter of explorers, Cole (Michael Pena) and Elena (Eva Longoria) lives deep in the Peruvian jungle. Diego leaves to be with his family in Los Angeles one day while Dora's family remains searching for Parapata, the lost Inca city of gold. 10 years later, Dora's parents decide to send her to live with her cousin Diego in LA when they decipher the location of Parapata. While on a class trip, Dora and others are lured and captured by mercenaries who fly them to Peru where they plan to force her to find her parents for them.
I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. I guess that happens when you really don't have any expectations at all. I thought this movie was pretty funny and also pretty good for expanding on what was originally a 30 minute kids show that was mostly educational. The girl playing Dora, Isabela Moner, did a great job in her role of Dora. She was optimistically upbeat the whole film even when things didn't go her way but still showed a fragile side to her at the same time that she did incredible feats. Eugenio Derbez was also incredibly funny and did an awesome job as well. The movie was everything you expect for a fun family film and at the same time had good lessons or values to take away from it at the same time. I give this movie a 6/10.
Spending her days going on adventures with her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), her monkey friend Boots (Danny Trejo) and imaginary friends "Map" and "Backpack", Dora (Isabela Moner), daughter of explorers, Cole (Michael Pena) and Elena (Eva Longoria) lives deep in the Peruvian jungle. Diego leaves to be with his family in Los Angeles one day while Dora's family remains searching for Parapata, the lost Inca city of gold. 10 years later, Dora's parents decide to send her to live with her cousin Diego in LA when they decipher the location of Parapata. While on a class trip, Dora and others are lured and captured by mercenaries who fly them to Peru where they plan to force her to find her parents for them.
I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. I guess that happens when you really don't have any expectations at all. I thought this movie was pretty funny and also pretty good for expanding on what was originally a 30 minute kids show that was mostly educational. The girl playing Dora, Isabela Moner, did a great job in her role of Dora. She was optimistically upbeat the whole film even when things didn't go her way but still showed a fragile side to her at the same time that she did incredible feats. Eugenio Derbez was also incredibly funny and did an awesome job as well. The movie was everything you expect for a fun family film and at the same time had good lessons or values to take away from it at the same time. I give this movie a 6/10.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Their Finest (2017) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Keep Calm and Carry on Writing.
In a well-mined category, “Their Finest” is a World War 2 comedy/drama telling a tale I haven’t seen told before: the story behind the British Ministry of Information and their drive to produce propaganda films that support morale and promote positive messages in a time of national crisis. For it is 1940 and London is under nightly attack by the Luftwaffe during the time known as “The Blitz”. Unfortunately the Ministry is run by a bunch of toffs, and their output is laughably misaligned with the working class population, and especially the female population: with their husbands fighting overseas, these two groups are fast becoming one and the same. For women are finding and enjoying new empowerment and freedom in being socially unshackled from the kitchen sink.
The brave crew of the Nancy Starling. Bill Nighy as Uncle Frank, with twins Lily and Francesca Knight as the Starling sisters.
Enter Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton, “The Girl with all the Gifts“) who is one such woman arriving to a dangerous London from South Wales to live with struggling disabled artist Ellis (Jack Huston, grandson of John Huston). Catrin, stretching the truth a little, brings a stirring ‘true’ tale of derring-do about the Dunkirk evacuation to the Ministry’s attention. She is then employed to “write the slop” (the woman’s dialogue) in the writing team headed by spiky Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin, “Me Before You“).
One of the stars of the film within the film is ‘Uncle Frank’ played by the aging but charismatic actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy, “Dad’s Army“, “Love Actually”). Catrin proves her worth by pouring oil on troubled waters as the army insist on the introduction of an American airman (Jake Lacy, “Carol“) to the stressful mix. An attraction builds between Catrin and Tom, but how will the love triangle resolve itself? (For a significant clue see the “Spoiler Section” below the trailer, but be warned that this is a major spoiler!).
As you might expect if you’ve seen the trailer the film is, in the main, warm and funny with Gemma Arterton just gorgeously huggable as the determined young lady trying to make it in a misogynistic 40’s world of work. Arterton is just the perfect “girl next door”: (sigh… if I was only 20 years younger and unattached!) But mixed in with the humour and the romantic storyline is a harsh sprinkling of the trials of war and not a little heartbreak occurs. This is at least a 5 tissue movie.
Claflin, who is having a strong year with appearances in a wide range of films, is also eminently watchable. One of his best scenes is a speech with Arterton about “why people love the movies”, a theory that the film merrily and memorably drives a stake through the heart of!
Elsewhere Lacy is hilarious as the hapless airman with zero acting ability; Helen McCrory (“Harry Potter”) as Sophie Smith vamps it up wonderfully as the potential Polish love interest for Hilliard; Richard E Grant (“Logan“) and Jeremy Irons (“The Lion King”, “Die Hard: with a Vengeance”) pop up in useful cameos and Eddie Marsan (“Sherlock Holmes”) is also touching as Hilliard’s long-suffering agent.
But it is Bill Nighy’s Hilliard who carries most of the wit and humour of the film with his pompous thespian persona, basking in the dwindling glory of a much loved series of “Inspector Lynley” films. With his pomposity progressively warming under the thawing effect of Sophie and Catrin, you have to love him! Bill Nighy is, well, Bill Nighy. Hugh Grant gets it (unfairly) in the neck for “being Hugh Grant” in every film, but this pales in comparison with Nighy’s performances! But who cares: his kooky delivery is just delightful and he is a national treasure!
Slightly less convincing for me was Rachael Stirling’s role as a butch ministry busybody with more than a hint of the lesbian about her. Stirling’s performance in the role is fine, but would this really have been so blatant in 1940’s Britain? This didn’t really ring true for me.
While the film gamely tries to pull off London in the Blitz the film’s limited budget (around £25m) makes everything feel a little underpowered and ’empty’: a few hundred more extras in the Underground/Blitz scenes for example would have helped no end. However, the special effects crew do their best and the cinematography by Sebastian Blenkov (“The Riot Club”) suitably conveys the mood: a scene where Catrin gets caught in a bomb blast outside a clothes shop is particularly moving.
As with all comedy dramas, sometimes the bedfellows lie uncomfortably with each other, and a couple of plot twists: one highly predictable; one shockingly unpredictable make this a non-linear watch. This rollercoaster of a script by Gaby Chiappe, in an excellent feature film debut (she actually also has a cameo in the propaganda “carrot film”!), undeniably adds interest and makes the film more memorable. However (I know from personal experience) that the twist did not please everyone in the audience!
Despite its occasionally uneven tone, this is a really enjoyable watch (particularly for more mature audiences) and Danish director Lone Scherfig finally has a vehicle that matches the quality of her much praised Carey Mulligan vehicle “An Education”.
The brave crew of the Nancy Starling. Bill Nighy as Uncle Frank, with twins Lily and Francesca Knight as the Starling sisters.
Enter Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton, “The Girl with all the Gifts“) who is one such woman arriving to a dangerous London from South Wales to live with struggling disabled artist Ellis (Jack Huston, grandson of John Huston). Catrin, stretching the truth a little, brings a stirring ‘true’ tale of derring-do about the Dunkirk evacuation to the Ministry’s attention. She is then employed to “write the slop” (the woman’s dialogue) in the writing team headed by spiky Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin, “Me Before You“).
One of the stars of the film within the film is ‘Uncle Frank’ played by the aging but charismatic actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy, “Dad’s Army“, “Love Actually”). Catrin proves her worth by pouring oil on troubled waters as the army insist on the introduction of an American airman (Jake Lacy, “Carol“) to the stressful mix. An attraction builds between Catrin and Tom, but how will the love triangle resolve itself? (For a significant clue see the “Spoiler Section” below the trailer, but be warned that this is a major spoiler!).
As you might expect if you’ve seen the trailer the film is, in the main, warm and funny with Gemma Arterton just gorgeously huggable as the determined young lady trying to make it in a misogynistic 40’s world of work. Arterton is just the perfect “girl next door”: (sigh… if I was only 20 years younger and unattached!) But mixed in with the humour and the romantic storyline is a harsh sprinkling of the trials of war and not a little heartbreak occurs. This is at least a 5 tissue movie.
Claflin, who is having a strong year with appearances in a wide range of films, is also eminently watchable. One of his best scenes is a speech with Arterton about “why people love the movies”, a theory that the film merrily and memorably drives a stake through the heart of!
Elsewhere Lacy is hilarious as the hapless airman with zero acting ability; Helen McCrory (“Harry Potter”) as Sophie Smith vamps it up wonderfully as the potential Polish love interest for Hilliard; Richard E Grant (“Logan“) and Jeremy Irons (“The Lion King”, “Die Hard: with a Vengeance”) pop up in useful cameos and Eddie Marsan (“Sherlock Holmes”) is also touching as Hilliard’s long-suffering agent.
But it is Bill Nighy’s Hilliard who carries most of the wit and humour of the film with his pompous thespian persona, basking in the dwindling glory of a much loved series of “Inspector Lynley” films. With his pomposity progressively warming under the thawing effect of Sophie and Catrin, you have to love him! Bill Nighy is, well, Bill Nighy. Hugh Grant gets it (unfairly) in the neck for “being Hugh Grant” in every film, but this pales in comparison with Nighy’s performances! But who cares: his kooky delivery is just delightful and he is a national treasure!
Slightly less convincing for me was Rachael Stirling’s role as a butch ministry busybody with more than a hint of the lesbian about her. Stirling’s performance in the role is fine, but would this really have been so blatant in 1940’s Britain? This didn’t really ring true for me.
While the film gamely tries to pull off London in the Blitz the film’s limited budget (around £25m) makes everything feel a little underpowered and ’empty’: a few hundred more extras in the Underground/Blitz scenes for example would have helped no end. However, the special effects crew do their best and the cinematography by Sebastian Blenkov (“The Riot Club”) suitably conveys the mood: a scene where Catrin gets caught in a bomb blast outside a clothes shop is particularly moving.
As with all comedy dramas, sometimes the bedfellows lie uncomfortably with each other, and a couple of plot twists: one highly predictable; one shockingly unpredictable make this a non-linear watch. This rollercoaster of a script by Gaby Chiappe, in an excellent feature film debut (she actually also has a cameo in the propaganda “carrot film”!), undeniably adds interest and makes the film more memorable. However (I know from personal experience) that the twist did not please everyone in the audience!
Despite its occasionally uneven tone, this is a really enjoyable watch (particularly for more mature audiences) and Danish director Lone Scherfig finally has a vehicle that matches the quality of her much praised Carey Mulligan vehicle “An Education”.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
Form-Prefect of the Dead.
The Plot
Meredith Houseman (Simon Pegg) is housemaster of Sparta house in Slaughterhouse school: an ancient public school establishment steering England’s future greats to greatness (which probably explains a lot about the current Brexit mess!). Houseman is not in a happy place, given that his girlfriend is now in deepest darkest African doing “good works” with handsome French doctors, and particularly that she is played by Margot Robbie: I would be also be sad… #punching!
New school starter Don Wallace (Finn Cole) is equally unhappy as he is a northern teen dragooned into attending the school by his well-meaning Mum (Jo Hartley). His strange room-mate Willoughby (Asa Butterfield) seems to be a chronic depressive; he is being picked on by the prefect-bully Clegg (Tom Rhys Harries); and his bed was previously occupied by a Viscount, since deceased under unpleasant circumstances that no-one wants to talk about. At least he has the distraction of the upper-sixth school goddess Clemsie Lawrence (Hermione Corfield) to take his mind off his woes.
All this washes over “The Bat” – the school’s headmaster (Michael Sheen) – since he is engrossed in some shady deal with an evil corporation doing fracking in the school grounds. The fracking though seems to be doing more than just causing a few minor earth tremors, as ancient forces are unleashed.
The Review
The movie is positioned as a “comedy/horror”, along the lines of “Shaun of the Dead”. The film also has Frost and Pegg as executive producers and they also have starring roles in the film. But there the similarities really end: this is a “Cornetto film” without a cone of solid chocolate lurking at the bottom to enjoy.
The script (by director Crispian Mills and first-time screenwriter Henry Fitzherbert) is nowhere near as sharp as the Frost/Pegg scripts for their famous collaborations. The story overall makes precious little sense: it’s a hodge-podge of elements from many Harry Potter films (especially “The Chamber of Secrets”), Lindsay Anderson’s “If…”; and Roy Boulting’s “The Guinea Pig”; with also a sprinkling of the anarchic essence of Michael Palin’s classic “Tomkinson’s Schooldays”. The whole thing never manages to gel into a cohesive whole.
After the second reel, the film completely loses sight of the plot: there’s a whole lot of running, screaming and dying going on but there’s little logic behind any of it that I could fathom. What didn’t help my comprehension of what was going on were some ‘Cornetto-esque’ sequences of manic editing. Images were thrown onto the screen so subliminally that any clever nuance was lost. I’m sure at one point there was a droll (if gross) segue at a “Roman orgy” of a girl receiving oral sex before being ‘eaten out’ in an entirely different way. But you would need a Blu-ray and a frame-by-frame pause function to get the joke.
That’s not to say that I didn’t laugh a few times along the way. There are some sight gags – for example, Wooten (Kit Connor) as the lad at the bottom of the bullying pecking order, chained to a U-bend – that made me laugh, and some running jokes – for example, Frost as the head of the anti-fracking camp offering the kids drugs at every encounter – that mildly amuse. But once again here’s a British comedy that, like the atrocious “The Brits are Coming“, thinks that “funny” largely revolves around swearing a lot – how useful that “frack” sounds so similar to another word – with added bodily dismemberment.
The turns
Pegg and Frost ham it up with their usual comedy schtick well enough, and it was quite fun to see Sheen try a comedy role for a change as the conniving and supercilious headmaster. Elsewhere all the young cast put their hearts into it, but it’s again Asa Butterfield that your eyes gravitate to, due to his striking features. I last saw Asa in the excellent if harrowing WW1 drama “Journey’s End“, and he here proves again that he is a One Mann’s Movies ‘name to watch for the future’.
Final thoughts
There’s a lot to irritate in this film. From the “z” in the title to… well… about 80% of the film. There is no nuance or subtlety to either the writing or the direction. I think that’s a great shame. The film has a good premise hidden in there. An adult comedy set around the ridiculous rules and rites of public schools (away from the light nonsense of “St Trinians”) is overdue. And the whole subject of fracking, and the conflicts surrounding the controversial techniques, hasn’t yet – to my knowledge – been explored in a fictional movie. The film does have a few very funny moments. But as a whole I left the cinema with that “wasted two hours” feeling. Not recommended.
Meredith Houseman (Simon Pegg) is housemaster of Sparta house in Slaughterhouse school: an ancient public school establishment steering England’s future greats to greatness (which probably explains a lot about the current Brexit mess!). Houseman is not in a happy place, given that his girlfriend is now in deepest darkest African doing “good works” with handsome French doctors, and particularly that she is played by Margot Robbie: I would be also be sad… #punching!
New school starter Don Wallace (Finn Cole) is equally unhappy as he is a northern teen dragooned into attending the school by his well-meaning Mum (Jo Hartley). His strange room-mate Willoughby (Asa Butterfield) seems to be a chronic depressive; he is being picked on by the prefect-bully Clegg (Tom Rhys Harries); and his bed was previously occupied by a Viscount, since deceased under unpleasant circumstances that no-one wants to talk about. At least he has the distraction of the upper-sixth school goddess Clemsie Lawrence (Hermione Corfield) to take his mind off his woes.
All this washes over “The Bat” – the school’s headmaster (Michael Sheen) – since he is engrossed in some shady deal with an evil corporation doing fracking in the school grounds. The fracking though seems to be doing more than just causing a few minor earth tremors, as ancient forces are unleashed.
The Review
The movie is positioned as a “comedy/horror”, along the lines of “Shaun of the Dead”. The film also has Frost and Pegg as executive producers and they also have starring roles in the film. But there the similarities really end: this is a “Cornetto film” without a cone of solid chocolate lurking at the bottom to enjoy.
The script (by director Crispian Mills and first-time screenwriter Henry Fitzherbert) is nowhere near as sharp as the Frost/Pegg scripts for their famous collaborations. The story overall makes precious little sense: it’s a hodge-podge of elements from many Harry Potter films (especially “The Chamber of Secrets”), Lindsay Anderson’s “If…”; and Roy Boulting’s “The Guinea Pig”; with also a sprinkling of the anarchic essence of Michael Palin’s classic “Tomkinson’s Schooldays”. The whole thing never manages to gel into a cohesive whole.
After the second reel, the film completely loses sight of the plot: there’s a whole lot of running, screaming and dying going on but there’s little logic behind any of it that I could fathom. What didn’t help my comprehension of what was going on were some ‘Cornetto-esque’ sequences of manic editing. Images were thrown onto the screen so subliminally that any clever nuance was lost. I’m sure at one point there was a droll (if gross) segue at a “Roman orgy” of a girl receiving oral sex before being ‘eaten out’ in an entirely different way. But you would need a Blu-ray and a frame-by-frame pause function to get the joke.
That’s not to say that I didn’t laugh a few times along the way. There are some sight gags – for example, Wooten (Kit Connor) as the lad at the bottom of the bullying pecking order, chained to a U-bend – that made me laugh, and some running jokes – for example, Frost as the head of the anti-fracking camp offering the kids drugs at every encounter – that mildly amuse. But once again here’s a British comedy that, like the atrocious “The Brits are Coming“, thinks that “funny” largely revolves around swearing a lot – how useful that “frack” sounds so similar to another word – with added bodily dismemberment.
The turns
Pegg and Frost ham it up with their usual comedy schtick well enough, and it was quite fun to see Sheen try a comedy role for a change as the conniving and supercilious headmaster. Elsewhere all the young cast put their hearts into it, but it’s again Asa Butterfield that your eyes gravitate to, due to his striking features. I last saw Asa in the excellent if harrowing WW1 drama “Journey’s End“, and he here proves again that he is a One Mann’s Movies ‘name to watch for the future’.
Final thoughts
There’s a lot to irritate in this film. From the “z” in the title to… well… about 80% of the film. There is no nuance or subtlety to either the writing or the direction. I think that’s a great shame. The film has a good premise hidden in there. An adult comedy set around the ridiculous rules and rites of public schools (away from the light nonsense of “St Trinians”) is overdue. And the whole subject of fracking, and the conflicts surrounding the controversial techniques, hasn’t yet – to my knowledge – been explored in a fictional movie. The film does have a few very funny moments. But as a whole I left the cinema with that “wasted two hours” feeling. Not recommended.