Awesome Movie

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Harry Enfield and Chums ran for a couple of series in the 90's, its title was an acknowledgement of the others who contributed to the success of Enfield's comedy, most notably Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke. The series continues the same format that 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' had started, i.e. sketch based comedy featuring an array of characters that mostly re-appeared several times over the course of the two seasons. It also has to be admitted that the comedy relied quite a bit on the use of catchphrases, which were ultimately an easy identifier for most of the characters. Catchphrase comedy has developed a bit of a bad name over the years for being too simplistic and banal and it's true that many comedy shows definitely fall into this bracket but Enfield seemed to occupy the high ground of this sub-genre back in the 90's and this series definitely shows how good he could be with it. In fairness, the best comedy routines in these shows had a lot more going for them than a memorable repeatable line.Looking at the series objectively from the point of view of today it does seem far more uneven than it did at the time. Back in the day it did come across as absolutely hilarious but some characters that were funny then seem a bit one-note and average now, like the Slobs, the Old Gits and the Scousers. While others such as the Randy Old Ladies and Harry and Lulu are completely unfunny. On the other hand, the show did introduce classic creations such as Kevin the Teenager and The Self Righteous Brothers. It also featured some inspired old school TV invention with the 1930's information films and Mr Dead. But some of the most memorable moments come via one-off sketches like the clever spoof Benny Elton and the bizarre combination of the Italian Il Postino with Postman Pat. While there are a few dud moments sprinkled throughout the two series, the good moments definitely outweigh the bad. Much of the credit for the success of the show simply comes down to the great comic acting of Enfield, Whitehouse and Burke, the latter is truly inspired as Perry the gormless teenage friend of Kevin. It's a shame that Enfield sort of lost his way with this kind of thing in the years that followed because this series showed that he was a master at it when he got it right.

I can't really remember seeing the normal show, but I saw the Yule Log Christmas Special which was brilliant. BAFTA nominated Harry Enfield is one of the greatest sketch show people I know, and along with Paul Whitehouse (The Fast Show) and BAFTA nominated Kathy Burke it is a really good show. I can't really say much about the show, so I'll say about the Christmas one. The characters that really stuck out for me were: Kevin and Perry the Teenagers (I've seen them on special video, Kevin's Guide to Being a Teenager); Frank and George (who used to be in the Hula Hoops adverts); The Rich Guy ("I am considerably richer than you!"); Honest John; Michael Paine and many other weird and wonderful people. One of the funniest sketches of the Christmas Special for me was the Telecocknies (a spoof of Teletubbies). It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment (Programme or Series). Kevin the Teenager was number 15 on The 100 Greatest TV Characters, Waynetta Slob was number 37 on The World's Greatest Comedy Characters, The Christmas Special was number 34 on The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments, and The Slobs - Brown Baby was number 11 on The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches. Very good!

He did aswell. He aslo made some of the funniest catchphrases ever. e.g. "Only me", "I am smokin a fag" and thouroughly bloody nice bloke". He used to be hilarious but now he doesnt cut it. classic comedy sktches, some of the best ive seen. 3/5

One of the comedy greats who will forever remain in our video collections for the various characters and Send-ups that he Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke did to gain our interest and liven up our humour zones which we must do so UNSTIFFEN THAT STIFF UPPER LIP!!!!!!!!!