Lucky Break

LUCKY BREAK is Peter Cattaneo's follow-up to his hugely successful 1997 comedy THE FULL MONTY, which I thought was great. Unfortunately his second stint behind the camera isn't half as successful. The main problem with this comedy is simple: it's not funny enough. Yes, there's a few chuckles but my sides definitely weren't split... they weren't even creased.

James Nesbitt, from TV's Cold Feet (in the UK), is full of cheeky Irish charm but I didn't think he cut it as a leading man. He's great on TV, but he lacked something on the big screen. The love interest is provided by the lovely Olivia Williams, who plays the same same sort of role she's done before, and is fine again here. Christopher Plummer plays the Prison's Governor and it's always good to see him even if the film's not that great. The rest of the inmates were pretty good, with Bill Nighy's scene-stealing poncey Roger as the standout.

Storywise it hit all the right notes but, as I'd said, wasn't nearly funny enough. There are echoes of MONTY throughout but the production put on by the inmates at the end of the film didn't work nearly as well as the MONTY finale. So, overall I'd say it was a bit of a disappointment, which is a bit of a shame.

It was probably made to capitalize on the well-deserved success of the "Full Monty" :both films have a lot in common ;proles / prisoners setting a show up.

The major drawback is Christopher Plummer's part :it's really underwritten and the scenarists obviously favored James Nesbitt's role.Too bad for the "show " sequences are the best in the whole film but we do not laugh enough.Lord Nelson's and "that" Lady Hamilton's song is deliciously stupid and provides a great moment of fun.The inmates ironically singing "we're going home" is a hilarious scene too.

But it seems that the director could not make up his mind :he hesitates between comedy and drama:the sadistic warden is a cliché ,as old as the hills in what is finally a prison movie.

Watchable but the screenplay was not fully exploited.

Caught this one on TV a while back and I'm glad I didn't bother to see it in theatrical release.

Though the film has an excellent cast and is as well-made as a basic comedy can be, there is one simple matter that the screenwriter Ronan Bennett seems to have overlooked - there is NO comedy, OK maybe there are one or two laughs here, but that's all.

Apparently based on a book by the superb Stephen Fry, one wonders why the producers didn't approach Mr. Fry to write the screenplay, after all his track record speaks for itself - the man knows how to make people laugh!

The film sold itself as being 'From the Director of The Full Monty' well, I don't know what happened here, but Peter Cattaneo didn't bring any of the skills he seemed to display in TFM.

Don't bother with this one at all, a total waste of time.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this romp of nonsense. In fact, we're still singing that crazy "Four Months at Sea" song and laughing about it. Sure, it is improbable, but the actors are obviously having fun, making it such a pleasure to watch. Imagine a bunch of no-talent prisoners attempting a musical to "please" their warden (and escape)? Can they pull it off without killing themselves laughing at their ridiculousness? That's entirely debatable. The songs are catchy, the casting of the musical characters (think con-jobs) hilarious, the costumes.... well, see for yourself. This is one film we are planning to buy and keep. Just what is needed when stuck in lousy winter weather.

Please stop comparing this film to The Full Monty. The comparison is irrelevant. It is not, and never intends to be, a sequel to Monty.

Please do have a look at this film as it is, actually, very good, with some well observed and interesting performances. Some reviews on here give the impression the film is unfunny. Not so. It works well as a light comedy/romance.

Worth seeing too as an example of good British cinema. I wonder what Hollywood would have done with the script..? (On second thought... Let's not go there).

Well done (again) Film Four.