It takes just 2 minutes to realise that you are just about to endure 90 minutes of seriously unfunny, ludicrously plotted and badly filmed "comic" action. Add in three actors that have done great work in the past - it could be argued that Brosnan's best work was as the non-speaking gunman in the final scene of "The Long Good Friday" - and you have a vehicle that careers over the cliff and buries them and all their previous roles five fathoms deep. I've had more chuckles watching the nth TV re-run of Carry on Camping than could ever be squeezed out of this mindless trash. Poor plotting, excruciating dialogue, gurning actors (Spall & Thompson battling to outdo each other) and a denouement that is expected from the first nano-second and duly (and cynically) delivered 92 minutes later. There was someone further down the row from me who was laughing like a drain but she had been wheeled in from the local alzheimer's nursing home. The rest of us were sitting in stony silence gradually getting more and more angry at the waste of our time and hard-earned money. I have never really felt so antagonistic towards the actors on screen as I realised our pockets were being picked and the money dropped into their bank accounts. By the end of the film I was stuffing my seat tickets into my mouth out of desperation. 12 hours later and I'm still fuming. (And by the by this is NOT just a film for the "oldies". I've viewed some wondrous films in my 66 years and my critical faculties are, I hope, still sharply honed to recognise quality when it surfaces. And equally recognise total tat when it bubbles to the surface like marsh gas. This is one of the latter.)
Review of The Love Punch
The Love Punch
(2013)
Three (and a half) decent actors collectively shoot their careers in the foot.
4 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers