Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie - Film Review

The Mrs Brown's Boys series has been a massive hit with audiences in the UK & Ireland. The loud mouth mammy has gone from a little radio series to prime time TV with millions tuning in and achieved sell out stage tours. With it's popularity growing, it was only a matter of time before it hit the big screen. However is this just one step too far? Could they adapted the show from a live audience to a film set? At first glance I was unsure. I saw the trailer for Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie about a month ago and it to put it bluntly, it looked crap. Recycled jokes that you've possibly heard before if you've seen the TV series and it did look like a cash grab with no care whatsoever, only to get fans on seats. I walked into the cinema and it looked like the elderly had be released from their retirement homes. I've never seen so many over 70's in my life, it was really nice to see. I didn't know Mrs Brown's Boys was so popular with the older generation. However a few of them in front of me did need the loo a fair bit throughout so I was having to move my head like a seal trying to catch a fish. 

So Brendan O'Carroll and the family are back and the plot is very simple, consisting of Mrs Brown's fruit and veg stall being under threat from developers wanting to buy the land to build a shopping centre and the family attempt to save it. The first 5 minutes of the film was very entertaining, the last 5 minutes at the end was very entertaining. However everything else was dreadful. The big screen just doesn't suit the Mrs Brown's Boys style of comedy. The majority of the jokes were that bad that I had to laugh at some of them. On a par with Bruce Forsyth's jokes. The main reason why Mrs Brown's Boys works well on stage and on TV is the way the show works with the live audience. The cast know how to work with them and get the reaction from the crowd and you just can't do that same routine with film. The bloopers that you see whilst they perform the show, which are hilarious, don't work whilst watching the film. It's something you put on the end credits. And they did put the bloopers on at the end so why were they actually in the film. It made no sense. The feel of the film felt like it should have been put on BBC One as a special. It didn't have the tone of a big comedy film because they didn't invest anytime in creating new material, it was the same old comedy you get from the TV show. Unfortunately I think the film was originally was intended for TV but they decided to get Universal on board and gain as much money as possible. Apparently Brendan O'Carroll has said 2 more films were in the making. And with this showing it tells me he's more interesting in making even more money rather than caring for his audience.

Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie sadly fails to deliver any new jokes and the recycled material is poorly executed. The jump from TV and stage to film, to answer my earlier question, is one step too far for the franchise. It should stick to what it does best and not explore the world of cinema again. However this film will make plenty of money so expect more awful films like this in the future.

Rating : 2/10

22 Jump Street - Film Review

21 Jump Street really surprised me when it came out in 2012. I expected it to be a really dumb and goofy Adam Sandler style film with guns and idiotic humour that made no sense whatsoever. However it turned our out to be a really funny and vastly entertaining film with fantastic chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Their bromance was incredible and they were so likable. You could tell they were having such a laugh and it reflected in their performances. It was the funniest high school teen movie I've seen since American Pie. The way it was written just felt new and unique and that blend of smart writing and hilarious moronic humour worked. It's very rare to see in this type of comedy. I wanted to see what 22 Jump Street brought new to table and to be honest, very little. However this film is still very funny indeed.


22 Jump Street sees Hill and Tatum back as 2 undercover cops and their assignment is to go undercover as college students and locate the supplier. So exactly the same plot as the last film. Sounds odd but because this film makes the it work, it surprised me yet again! Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum couldn't be any different but the relationship they have feels so natural and they compliment each other perfectly throughout the film, just as they did previously. It's gag after gag after gag and it's non stop jokes. Even when some don't quite pay off  the next joke does. Ice Cube is back in this film as the Captain and he kills it when he's on screen. There's a couple of scene where he makes it his own and I couldn't breath for about 5 minutes. The film in terms of comedy doesn't disappoint, you'll be gasping for air at times. There's one character however who got on my nerves and that being Jonah Hill's love interest's room mate. Her comedy just didn't work at all and she didn't fit in with the rest of film. She was annoying but in a bad way. And there's a ten minute part in the middle of the film which seems to drag a little and was pretty pointless in terms of progressing the story. If you have seen 21 Jump Street you may be disappointed that this film plot is more or less exactly the same and find that tedious at times. 


22 Jump Street is so laidback like the previous film, ripping itself constantly in the process which was entertaining and it makes fun of sequels in general, which is shown in the end credits which you stick around for. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have already had another success this year with The Lego Movie so they are definitely up and coming. The lovable chemistry between Hill and Tatum are what sells the film and I hope they do more projects together.

Rating : 8/10

The Fault in Our Stars - Film Review

It's quite clear now that Hollywood insist on making films which are adapted from best selling books aimed at a young female audience. It's easy money, as they flock to see their beloved books created into big screen movies, hoping that the film is good as what they see in their imaginations. However with the vast majority of these adaptations, the film makers really couldn't give a crap about the quality as they get whipped by studios to create these awful movies in a very short space of time. They all have the same cliches and terrible dialogue that makes you want to cringe and throw up whilst you're painfully watching sappy bullshit thrown in your face. So when it came to sitting down to watch The Fault in Our Stars, expectations were low. Mainly because of the fear pointed out in the previous points mentioned and that their was plenty of teenage girls queuing outside the screen, all wanting to cry before the film even started. Great. So as I sat their with my friend, who she looked at me in deepest sympathy whilst crying with laughter at my situation, being in a supposed teen movie ( the cheeky cow!), I was preparing for yet another blubbering cheesy teen movie. Wow I was wrong, very wrong.

The Fault in Our Stars has a talented cast headed by Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16 year old cancer patient who has terminal thyroid cancer. Her mother played by Laura Dern, believing her daughter has depression, sends Hazel to a support group who she subsequently meets Augustus Waters, played by Ansel Elgort and as a result the two fall in love. What impressed from the very beginning is that you felt connected to the character of Hazel. You understood her situation that she's accepted that she has cancer and the realism of that makes her very relatable. And so were the rest of the characters in this film. They all felt like they could be the neighbours on the street, which is down to the brilliant acting from the cast. Gus has to be on a level with Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings in terms of being an amazing male human being. He's so positive about life even though he's had an awful time with his cancer. His charm that he brings could have came across as a little arrogant and smarmy but because Ansel Elgort plays the character so well, you gain so much admiration for him. The chemistry between Hazel and Gus wasn't mind blowing but the connection was still really good and that's down to the heartfelt script. The way the film was written could have meant the film coming across as really over the top cheesy emotion, which without any care for detail would have butchered the film. However even though the film at times comes across as a little sappy, the mixture of good direction from Josh Boone, the cast understanding their characters and the script makes the films unique style work.

The Fault in Our Stars is handled with plenty of care and it avoids that problem with the vast of majority of these types of films, that they're too much like fantasy and fake, meaning it doesn't hit on an emotional level for the whole audience. This film tries so hard to avoid the same old cliches and I admire that because it could have easily been thrown on the skip pile with the rest of the rubbish. As soon as the bloke on the same row as me borrowed some of his missuses tissues, this film had truly succeeded. It's a film that you can easily watch again at home, even though I would recommend investing in a box of tissues....maybe another one just in case. Any manliness I had has truly gone with this film. 

Rating: 8/10