Steve9920

This would make a decent program to insert into any childrens tv slot. Or for any adults who make a deliberate point of staying in touch with their inner child. I am all for those whimsically offbeat British comedies, oozing with self aware silliness and nostalgic village idiot types, as long as there is some underlaying worthwhile message put across with a few laughs . But this misses the mark in every respect. No laughs, no characters to care about, no action, no point.

To be fair, that's based on the opening 30 minutes, which is as much as I could bear. One third the running time, so one third the score, 3/10.

There were three key scenes which I thought were implausible and that the script had possibly taken liberties with the facts. However, a subsequent read up of the actual tragedies proved me wrong, the events did occur.

Arnie did a great job, underplaying his character, as did Scoot McNairy who definitely had the more taxing of the two lead roles. Yes, its slow moving, but its a totally involving if solemn watch. The sense of loss, bereavement and guilt come across all too convincingly.

I usually only give 7 or above for films I am likely to re watch at some point, Aftermath I will not, but still deserves a 7 I think.

A dark comedy? Please show me the laugh points, or even the haha moments. Nearest it gets is in eventually prodding you to realise that it's not really a serious film.

Political thriller? Not that either. The politics are just hackneyed portrayals of mostly unlikeable paper thin characters devoid of any back story or motivational signposts. Cartoonish left and right, acting out almost juvenile plot arcs that land nowhere, slowly.

Action film? Yes, have to give it that one, epically so? Miles away.

Get past the first eye rolling wtf is this 20 minutes, and the next 140 minutes is moderately entertaining nonsense.