Review: What We Did On Our Holiday

Connolly gives up. He’s not the only one.

 

Title:                         What We Did On Our Holiday

Certificate:              12A

Directors:                Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin

Major Players:         David Tennant, Rosamund Pike, Billy Connolly

Out Of Five:             2.5

 

I so wanted to like this! On paper, What We Did On Our Holiday looks great fun – and so does the trailer.  There’s David Tennant and Billy Connolly, and a script by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin.  What’s not to like? Sadly, it turns out an awful lot!

The story is this. Doug (Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) and their three children take off to Scotland for a long weekend to celebrate the 75^th birthday of Doug’s father, Gordy (Connolly). There’s going to be a big party, organised by Doug’s pompous brother Gavin (Ben Miller), who lives in something close to a country mansion.  But the inevitable family secrets complicate matters: Doug and Abi are living apart but don’t want Gordy to know – because he has terminal cancer.

Did I have a sense of humour failure on the evening in question?   I don’t think so.  Part of my problem with the film could lie with its authors and directors, Messrs Hamilton and Jenkins, who were also responsible for the highly successful TV comedy series, Outnumbered.  I have a sneaky suspicion that, if you enjoyed that, you’ll be happier with the film than I was.  Because what they’ve done is to take a similar group of overly-savvy kids and put them in a different situation on the big screen.  Trouble is, I never took to Outnumbered.

The big screen is another of the issues I had with the film. Five minutes in, it was looking more like something that had been made for TV – a Christmas special, perhaps – and then somebody had the bright idea of putting it on at the cinema.  Tennant’s legions of fans would flock in and it would make money.  Wouldn’t it?  It probably will, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.  Because it’s simply not meant for the big screen in the first place.

It gets worse. There’s a rogue ostrich that flits across the screen from time to time.  The first time it happens, your interest is piqued because you think you’re in for something a little bit quirky.  After its third appearance, you’re getting fed up of it and would just like to be told how it fits in.  Actually, it doesn’t have any significance.  The flock of ostriches belong to a friend of Gordy’s.  End of.

That’s just one of a string of ideas and possibilities left floating in thin air. Middle child Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge) is obsessed with Vikings – at the start of the film he’s watching the funeral at the end of Kirk Douglas epic The Vikings and he has a poster of Odin on his wall, complete with eye patch.  Later in the film, when all the guests arrive for the birthday party, there’s one tall man wearing an eye patch – Odin, as far as Mickey’s concerned.  But does he meet his hero?  Nah!  He doesn’t even get close.  So why waste time on all the build up?  Incidentally, the guest in question is also the victim of some painfully obvious plotting.  He’s stone deaf – so when somebody explains to him why Gordy hasn’t arrived at the do, it’s hardly private!

There’s depressingly few genuine laughs. There are the mandatory ones – swipes at easy targets like the media and politicians – but the only really good gag is about Gavin’s ‘intelligent’ house, which is controlled by technology.  There’s no light switches: you just clap your hands accordingly and this makes a neat running joke but, like the rest of the film, even that is under-developed.

What We Did On Our Holiday is such a massive disappointment. All the ingredients are there – a really likeable cast and a pair of writer/directors who have a seriously good track record.  So, what did they do on their holiday?  Well, it looked like they came up with this script while suffering from sunstroke.

 

What We Did On Our Holiday is released around the UK on Friday, 26 September.

 

Review – Postman Pat:The Movie

Stardom beckons for Greendale’s finest …..

 

Title:                          Postman Pat:The Movie

Certificate:               U

Director:                   Mike Disa

Major Players:         Stephen Mangan, Jim Broadbent, David Tennant (voices only)

Out of five?              3

 

If you’re a child of the 80s, chances are you spent your pre-school days absorbed in the totally wholesome adventures of the nation’s favourite postie, Pat. Well, here’s your chance to relive those halcyon days – because Postman Pat:The Movie has arrived.  And both he and his faithful black and white cat, Jess, have had something of a 21^st century makeover.

When a new whizz-kid puts a stop to bonuses at SDS, Pat (voiced by Stephen Mangan) can’t afford the Italian holiday he’s promised his wife, Sarah.  So he enters a TV talent competition to win the holiday instead, and finds himself tempted by all the trappings of fame and fortune – and fighting evil forces at his place of work.

And the big screen Greendale is certainly another world from the one we first saw on TV. Gone is the stop motion animation of the original, replaced by the infinitely slicker digital version.  And it makes sense.  Stop motion was fine for a ten minute show for the under 5s, where the characters didn’t have to show that much in the way of emotion.  But this version of Pat is aimed at a different audience – children aged 8-10 and their parents – with higher expectations of what they see on the screen.  80s style stop motion wouldn’t have cut it.

The downside of this is that Pat’s lost some of his charm in his move to digital.  It’s all pristine lines, smoothness and ever so slightly clinical.  The naivety of the original is no more as well and instead we have a story that aims to be more contemporary, taking a pop at a few familiar targets and throwing in some gags aimed squarely the grown-ups in the audience.

And Pat himself has changed too.  He still looks much the same, but now he’s voiced by Stephen Mangan, in his first piece of voice acting for a movie.  Having met the extremely likeable Mr Mangan in person, I can understand why he got the gig but, for some unaccountable reason, his voice is just a tad lighter on the big screen.  And it just doesn’t match the character.  His singing voice, which comes to the fore in the talent contest, is provided by Ronan Keating, and so has an uncannily Irish lilt.  Again, not quite a perfect fit.

The other main voices in the film are a different matter. Jim Broadbent’s bumbling-but-likeable old man voice is spot on for Mr Brown, the boss of SDS, Pat’s employer.  As is David Tennant, as the voice of Wilf, the unscrupulous manager of Josh, Pat’s main rival in the talent contest.  And, just in case we don’t realise who we’re listening to, Wilf has eyebrows scarily similar to Tennant’s.

Postman Pat:The Movie is a film that knows its market and its release on Friday, 23^rd means it’ll be packing ‘em in over the Bank Holiday.  As a film, it has the occasional nod in the direction of other animated films.  It has Wallace and Gromit aspirations, with Jess pulling off some impressive stunts early on, and when Pat is replaced by a robot, none of his friends in Greendale seem to notice the difference – just like when Kermit was replaced by a villainous double in Muppets Most Wanted, only this time it’s even more obvious.

But the final verdict on the film has to go to the eight year old son of a friend of mine, who was at the same screening as me.  Did he like it?  The question got a very big nod. It’s all you need to know!

 

Postman Pat:The Movie goes on general release around the UK on Friday, 23 May.