Sex Lives of the Potato Men

I saw this at the cinema when it came out and had no idea it had been mauled by the critics. I laughed as much as I ever have done at a film and plenty others there seemed to find it just as funny. There are some great lines in the script and excellent performances from Mark Gatiss, Mackenzie Crook and (in some ways) Johnny Vegas.

The attacks on the film have been ridiculous. It is not smutty. It is not a revival of Carry on or the Confessions series. It has nothing in it for teenage onanists. Every other movie coming out of Hollywood these days spends half its time ogling its stars in lingering close up. Potato Men does not contain a single scene like that, nor was anyone cast as eye candy. Quite the opposite...

It shows a coarse, poor, bleak life in a coarse, bleak, but humorous way and does not try and convince anyone that we are watching the Salt of the Earth. It was probably that element that shocked the reviewers. Well received British movies like The Full Monty and Billy Elliot seem self- conscious about this issue. It is as though we have to be packaged for an imaginary American audience, who might otherwise have us down for horse riding snobs.

I am not claiming it to be a masterpiece. It has some weak elements that can be attributed mainly to the episodic plot and a low budget. There is a review here from trinitybay9 that sums it up very well. There are four sections and the one concerning Tolly is quite poor. There are some excellent comedy performances in the film but Dominic Coleman's is not one of them.

The real shame though is that the director is never likely to make another film. With the honourable exception of Johnny Vegas, even the cast responded gutlessly to the bad press. It is easily the best thing Mackenzie Crook has done since The Office, but he seems to consider it to be, artistically, a black mark on a CV that contains the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

It was the worst film of the year. A waste of Lottery money and disgusting.

PLEASE. It's a film for crying out loud which is not trying to change the world or lead us on a path to enlightenment.

I laughed my ass off. In your face crass humour all the way and if you don't like it then turn it off. A few beers and 90 minutes of gut wrenching laughter made me recommend this film to mates and they loved it.

If you are a prude, looking to unite mankind or think Spongebob Square Pants is silly then this movie is not for you.

Its a film people and personally I loved it money well spent.

Being a girl this is the sort of film that I was warned about watching, but being an open minded individual I decided to give it a go.

I hate to say it but I found Johnny Vegas' acting not overly great, however Mackenzie Crook was very good, very believable character (I loved him in the office and I was worried that I would be put off by his acting ability in this film, but I was pleasantly surprised!)

This film shows a humorous side to kinky areas of sex that some people get up to which I found really funny, and quite a lot of it true !! Some people are very weird in the bedroom!

There's not really a detailed plot line, but judging on the title of the film I didn't hold out much hope :)so i wasn't disappointed!

Such was the opprobrium heaped on Sex Lives when first released, you'd think director (and one-time Mastermind winner) Andy Humphries had committed atrocities on a par with Harold Shipman's, or the Mai Lai massacre. Much column inches were generated devoted to this supposed 'worst film ever made', and there were questions raised in Parliament. It's quite mystifying actually – as even those hand-wringing broadsheets were forced to admit after cornering happy punters emerging from the theaters. Not many of them, granted; certainly, there were only two other audience members in attendance when this reviewer caught a screening – one of whom was covertly pleasuring himself throughout. (It seemed fitting, somehow.) The plot's simplicity itself: Vegas and Crook, the titular potato deliverers, attempt to get their end away with all and sundry. In truth, it's less sordid than surreal, featuring bonkers flights of fancy bordering on genius: Vegas's musing that all insects produce sugar-based substances, being a particular highlight. It's also slightly funny (ish). Essentially, an honest depiction of working class sex, and the inherent ridiculousness of the sex act itself.

All I expect from a comedy is that it's funny and that's what this film is. Funny.

OK, so ideally in addition there would have been some emotional resonance to counter and complement the comedy and the character arcs wouldn't just, sort of, limp to a hasty conclusion but I laughed throughout and so maybe that's being too picky.

People have compared this to the Carry On films and I hope Humphries is suitably horrified rather than flattered. The Carry On films severely lacked the depth, honesty and courage that Sex Lives of the Potato Men displays. I'd go as far to say Sex Lives of the Potato Men is a spot-on satire on recreational sex and the mores of the new millennium; where the seeking of new experiences is deemed more important than true intimacy and relationships.

It is bizarre that by simply holding a mirror up and reflecting our society as it exists, Humphries has been villified in the media.

I would strongly advise not to let middle-class metropolitan reviewers or the sexphobic moral minority or jealous bitter would-be film-makers put you off, see it for yourself and make your own mind up.