In 1970s England, three friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie (Christian Cooke) wants to leave their working-class world but cool, charismatic Bruce (Tom Hughes) and lovable loser Snork (Jack Doolan) are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a new job as a door-to-door salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie (Felicity Jones), the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives for ever. {official site}
HIS review
Unfortunately for Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant, they’re first foray into a dramatic film, as opposed to their usual comedy ventures, wasn’t anything to shout about. This is a coming-of-age story, like any other coming-of-age story. It was disappointing that the two comedic geniuses were unable to take us anywhere new and push the envelope. It remains a nice film, but nothing more. There are a few laughs added for good measure, but this is best left for a Sunday afternoon DVD.
HER review
I had already lowered my expectation of this film knowing that it wasn’t going to be on par with Gervais/Merchant productions such as The Office and Extras. I’m not saying that it wasn’t a pleasant little heart-warming story to watch but it did lack any real substance. The leads were all fresh-faced, Christian Cooke being the standout for me as Freddie. Ricky Gervais‘ character and his mother-in-law had the funniest banter (as you’d expect from Gervais!), but I think the mouse munching popcorn in the fourth row of the Camden Odeon was probably having more fun than me! It did make me wonder if it would have gone straight to DVD were it not for it’s director’s current high profiles.
What the public think
IMDb – 7.5 | Rotten Tomatoes – 65%
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