Sadly Over-hyped

Overrated and overhyped

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Black Adder is probably the 2nd best TV series of the United Kingdom after the Adrian Edmonson and Rik Mayall collaboration called Bottom(also both are my favourite sitcoms). Both are crude and as funny as hell. Especially this attempt at re-imagining Charles Dickens classic.At first you wonder if this will be any good because Black Adder starts out kind and lovely. Then the Ghost of Christmas comes to Ebenezer Black-adder and convinces him to follow in the family tradition of being a bastard. That made it all the more worth watching.This review isn't as long as my others because there isn't much to say except if you're a fan of the series, get this now.

The first and essential element is the set of actors and first of all Rowan Atkinson. That is pure English comedy based on totally anachronistic and crazy situations, on witty puns that nearly or most of the time have to do with what is generally under the belt of most people but that is floating on top of the mind of these comedians. It is supposed to make you laugh and nothing else and it ridicules all historical characters and situations: Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Georges VI or some other Prince of Wales, the First World War, Robin Hood and I guess they avoided Peter Pan because he might only be marginally historical, though Pitt Junior is a real hit, definitely under the belt at the level of the comforter, if you see what I mean. It even turns upside down the famous Christmas Carol. As for the Time Machine it is completely twisted around in all directions, back and forth for sure, to make a sort of self-centered social climbing, politically opportunistic remake of Back to the Future more than the Time Machine, but the principle is the same. So Sir Edmund Blackadder finishing King Edmund I is at least hilarious. H.G. Wells is betrayed since for him you cannot change the past and Zemeckis is betrayed just the same since you are not supposed to use your time travelling to recuperate some personal advantage from it. I must say though this type of comedy is light maybe slightly too light, but it is good indeed.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

If I had to sum up Blackadder's Christmas Carol, I'd say it was Dickens' traditional festive parable turned unashamedly inside out. We know of Edmund Blackadder's selfish, self-centred nature so what better way to approach the tale of seasonal personal epiphany than by turning the good man into an evil one.Edmund is set to spend another year with no money at all - and this is the only Blackadder I've seen, incidentally, where Baldrick is nearly on the same social footing (Edmund calls him "Mr. Baldrick") - until he is visited by the Christmas Spirit (brilliantly played by Robbie Coltrane. I particularly like the way the Spirit's plan to praise Edmund by showing the evil deeds of his ancestors backfires so badly, but I will reveal no more.It's not only Dickens' characters who get parodied here ("Mrs. Scratchit, Tiny Tim is seventeen stone and built like a brick privy! If he eats any more heartily he will burst") but that most iconic of nineteenth century figures, Queen Victoria herself. It is well known that she and her husband Albert truly loved each other and poor Albert is so enthusiastic about the presents he buys that he can keep nothing secret.It is a great tribute to Rowan Atkinson and Ben Elton that I can think of few other writers and actors who can parody a certain time in history so well. Refreshingly entertaining in an entirely different way to most seasonal TV.

SPOILERS Every Christmas it is the same thing. You wake up on Christmas Day, you spend the day with family and you eat Turkey. Every year as well, we always have at least one version of Charles Dickens' classic novel "A Christmas Carol". Talking about the transformation over night of Ebenezer Scrooge from nasty to nice, the tale is one of the most well known around.In 1988 however, we had an alternative to life. A spoof of Dickens' novel saw the light of day. Poking fun at the story and fitting it into the Blackadder family, we were given a Christmas present to remember.In Victorian London, one of the nicest men around was Ebenezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson). A kind businessman who constantly gave money and food away to the poor, Blackadder and his associate Baldrick (Tony Robinson) were short of money, but happy none the less. On Christmas Eve however, Blackadder was visited by the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) and things were about to change.This retelling of the classic tale but in a sort of reverse is brilliant because it allowed us to see new sketches for the Elizabethan and Georgian Blackadders. Bringing back all the old characters, Melchett (Stephen Fry), Queen Elizabeth (Miranda Richardson), Nursie (Patsy Byrne) and Prince George (Hugh Laurie), this episode also granted us a view into the future with the two ways the Blackadder family might evolve.Not without flaws, this episode did contain the incredibly annoying character of Millicent (Nicola Bryant), but written that way, it's difficult to really fault the character. Likewise the three fat orphans and their master Beadle (Denis Lill). Ultimately though, whether these characters are irritating or not, it is so good to see the old ones return, as well as a spirited performance (get it?) by Robbie Coltrane as the Ghost of Christmas, that all the negative characters are forgiven.All in all, "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" is brilliant. Funny throughout, it reminds us of why we love the series and it continues to entertain after multiple viewings. Well worth getting a copy of.