Why so much hype?

Beautiful, moving film.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

As an actor, I've worked with many of these characters over the years. Kenneth Branagh's screenplay truly captures the craziness of life backstage, and the formation of a new, temporary family during a production. I am so pleased it's available on DVD at long last -now more people can get to know this wonderful film. There are so many wonderful lines it would take far too much space to list them - But rest assured you'll write down a few to remember and use on your friends.Virtually the entire cast is marvelous. The late, great Richard Briers was never better. Julia Sawalha's Ophelia was totally affective. Gerard Horan's dipsomaniacal character was very moving -He really should be given larger roles. If only Jennifer Saunders had not tried that terrible American accent... Hers is the only performance in the film that doesn't ring true.

In every writing class the teacher tells you to write what you know. Never has this been so true as when Branagh 'knocked out' this little gem.At the time Branagh was deep into pre-production of his own monumental film version of Hamlet and all the niggling questions he was asking himself about casting and directing choices were exorcised in this film.Branagh had just gone through a separation from his wife and long time collaborator Emma Thompson. All the Woody Allen-like angst the character goes through about his own recent break-up are the result of this.Rumors were rife all over the Internet about Branagh having meetings with George Lucas about playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars The Phantom Menace... He was asked about them and denied them repeatedly. Branagh has some fun with all that as well.The director-writer dug deep and came up with a truly wonderful Christmas gift for movie-audiences. A charming and un-pretentious film that celebrates every person's need to be loved.

I love British film, comedy, theatre and probably because of the intellectual content. It isn't mindless. I watched this with my family and we were all alternatively laughing, crying, laughing. The best bit is the machine gun. Trust me!The video cover had publicity stills in colour. It was a bit worrisome when it presented in glorious black and white. But you get used to it very quickly.My daughter hunted out the video, bought it and it is regularly viewed. The performances are very, very good. Especially Richard Briers, Michael Maloney and Julia Swahala. Jennifer Saunders grates and grates and grates.Watch this film and enjoy.

I saw this is France in midsummer. It was a profound embarrassment, especially as the French audience saw it (like many other reviewers here) as a "charming little film" that essentialises their perception of Englishness. This is correct only if you accept that England is entirely populated by middle class amateur dramatists. I warn you now, this film features the most punchable cast in all British cinema of the 90s: Michael Maloney, who's jaw-droppingly excruciating performance in 'Truly Madly Deeply' will not be forgotten on Judgement Day; Richard Briers, who desperately wants his son to love him despite his homosexuality, resulting in an astonishingly lame reunion scene at the end. Briers plays the straightest gay man ever, but still manages to fall back into shocking tics of campness. The less said about Julia Sawalha, Celia Imrie and Jennifer Saunders' "hilarious" cameo the better. Let's face it, this cast is just Branagh's chums having a private love-in. And Branagh, as temporarily blind critics and audiences will one day realise, is the man who has managed to churn out a whole series of Shakespeare adaptations which strip the original texts of all their allegorical, subtextual or political functions in his quest to make them "accessible". Is anyone else patronised by the fact that the boy thinks that the most widely-read author in history needs to be made "accessible"? And how appropriate that, with this film, he should find empathy with a group of talentless amateurs, secretly yearning to crack Hollywood, who reduce Shakespearean tragedy to a stilted pile of family entertainment. RICHARD BRIERS: Ken, where are you? KENNETH BRANAGH: I'm in the kitchen. RICHARD BRIERS: Can I be in it too?