Stalag Luft

The DVD box promises that this will be 'zany and hilarious'.

It proves to be neither.

There's a nice idea here (to spoof PoW films) and they assembled a good cast (and Stephen Fry) to try and deliver that.

Unfortunately it doesn't work. It gets lost in the abyss, not knowing whether it's a straight drama, or a comedy, ending up being neither convincingly.

Nicholas Lyndhurst is good in it, he always is in whatever he does, sadly pigeonholed here in the UK for being just 'Rodney' from 'Only Fools and Horses'. Stephen Fry just plays the same role he's always played (badly), but Lyndhurst deserved this to be better.

Sadly it's not.

I watched this tonight and really didn't know what I was watching? Was it a comedy? I thought it was within the cast? It reminded me of the Casino Royale comedy film with Peter Sellers, who REALLY wanted to play his Bond role straight......but the directors didn't want him too! And he wasn't happy! This film is the same! I couldn't work it out, as the first half was somewhat of an ordeal and too much waffle, and I was trying to figure out what it was I was watching? Maybe it needed canned laughter? There are some brilliant moments! The Germans wanting to escape too and then the POW's changing their minds about escaping, and then not letting the Germans back in again! I can only agree with previous comments, but stay with it! It really does have its moments!