Patrick (2018) - Movie Review

After the scourge of talking animal movies audiences have been inflicted with this year, today’s film should come across as a pleasant reprieve. Yes, the title character and main narrative engine is an animal, but we’re not stuck with stupid and/or contrived dialogue to give it a reason for being here. Instead, it serves as main character Sarah’s wake-up call. Played with immense likeability by Beattie Edmondson, Sarah finds herself in an uncannily familiar rom-com situation: Unlucky in love, chomping on snack food on the couch in her pyjamas post-breakup, and in need of some control in her life. After the death of her grandmother, she is left with Granny’s beloved pug Patrick. Hijinks ensue.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016) - Movie Review

The current trend in British cinema that seems to crop up every year is adapting popular British TV comedies to the big screen. From Mrs. Brown’s Boys to The Inbetweeners, even just to characters from those shows like Keith Lemon, this seems to be the big predictable avenue for the cinematic output of the UK. It is also, to no surprise of anyone who has seen the majority of these films, a trend that yields little if any genuinely entertaining work. Okay, the first Inbetweeners movie was decent, but otherwise it’s a pretty basic guarantee for dirt-under-the-bottom-of-the-barrel crap in cinemas, or DVD if you’re even that fortunate.

So, with that in mind, it’s really worrying that the second film I’ll be covering today is an adaptation of a series that is very close to my childhood. I grew up watching Absolutely Fabulous on DVD with my mother and, if given the opportunity, I would lead a pub sing-a-long of This Wheel’s On Fire at the drop of a hat. Is this going to be another piece of dreck, or will I be so lucky as to find the one recent British TV adaptation that doesn’t suck?

Minions (2015) - Movie Review

This is the only natural progression that the series could have taken after Despicable Me 2. Between the increasing popularity of the Minions and the focus being brought squarely on them over pretty much anything else in the films, the next logical step would be a film all about the gibbering creatures. The idea that they’re going right ahead and dropping the pretence that people were watching the Despicable Me movies for any another reason than to see the Minions do funny things is a very good thing in my eyes; focus only on what you need to, rather than dragging yourself down for no reason. However, this could also prove to be a rather disastrous idea. Rough analogy time: Ol’ Dirty Bastard was a fun presence on any Wu-Tang Clan song, but listening to the entirety of one of his solo albums can cause some people to overdose; too much of a good and zany thing. Here’s hoping that this isn’t the case here.