The Love Punch

This movie tries hard but fails. It's more stupid than funny, but the cast is great. They deliver even if there wasn't much to work with. The movie is cute in places, nothing obnoxiously horrible, just fairly flat. OK for a watch if you've nothing better to do.

Despite good ingredients like good acting, charming actors and nice locations, the film disappoints as a comedy. The script and dialogs are not funny enough.

In promotion of this film, Emma Thompson did an interview with Entertainment Weekly in which she lamented the "vulgar" comedies of the day. I think we know what she is referring to. Films about bodily functions. Scenes of crass nudity. Comedies seemingly targeted at the fraternity crowd. Anything by Seth Rogan.

"The Love Punch", as she was implying, is the antidote. It's the story of two older exes who reunite for a noble cause--to regain their retirement funds, which were callously liquidated by the young CEO of a predatory French company, Lexon. Emma Thompson plays the ex-wife, Kate Jones. Pierce Brosnan plays the ex-husband, Richard Jones, the owner of a company that was recently purchased by the French company. He is looking forward to his retirement years, until he is blindsided by the tyranny of Lexon.

He has to admit to his ex-wife that their retirement funds are gone, threatening their golden years and the college funds of their children. This is the setup that triggers a parody of "Mission Impossible", in which the couple reunites in a scheme to steal a celebrated diamond. They are assisted by their long-married friends, humorously played by Celia Imrie and Timothy Spall.

The unlikely foursome are the soul of unsuave and uncool, and that is the source of most of the comedy in this cute film. It's a light-hearted, kind film that offers later-life observations about the concept of length-of-life romance. I also love the soundtrack, which defines the tone of the film with pinpoint precision.

This film could appeal to anyone, but those who can relate to Empty Nest Syndrome and the challenges of Retirement are its primary audience.

I do enjoy a good British romantic comedy. My guilty pleasure I guess. They just make you laugh and feel good, just a little escapism and shouldn't be taken seriously. Being serious, well, that's for other films. Having said that, this movie has so many things wrong with it, it should be a huge failure, but oddly enough I loved it. I thought the two leads Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson were exceptionally well cast as they were so believable and likable. The other "good guy" Anglo-Saxon characters were good and as in so many other British films, the bad guys were French. I'm not sure how to judge their performances. The French accents were really dodgy at best and totally unbelievable, but this just added to all the fun. You know what? I must just watch this again, now.

A divorced couple lose everything and so they plan a robbery in order to recover what is rightfully theirs.

This is a light-hearted comedy through and through, the type we are getting more and more used to in seeing the former Mr Bond. One could go on about the insufficient storyline as well as the sheer impossibility of the break-in executed by utter amateurs.

Whilst I stand by the above but to judge it on that basis would be a miss and by treating it as a fun/cheerie comedy about a former couple who have to put up with another in order to salvage their pension and embark on an adventure it will suffice for a somewhat delightful time on the big screen.