Mindhorn

Washed up actor Richard Thorncroft once had it all with his hit eighties show 'Mindhorn' where he played a bionic cop – a bit like the Six Million Dollar Man but more for a price quoted in Pounds, shillings and pence. Then a brutal murder happens on The Isle of Man and the number one suspect will only deal with the legendary detective… despite the fact he is fictional.

Eager to relaunch his career and get back to the days of being recognised by the 'great unwashed' he accepts the gig and goes back in to character. Little does he know that when he walks back on to that island he walks back into the past and a whole 'cluster farque' of problems.

Needless to say I loved this. The slapstick, overacting and badly fitting wigs are a joy to behold. The marvellous Julian Barratt plays Mindhorn perfectly and all the cast are great with Kenneth Brannagh giving a career best (IMHO) when he appears in a dream sequence. Russell Tovey seemed to be having a ball too and as for Mr Simon Callow he is always oodles of fun. All in all a great film and I wish there were more like it.

On paper there is a lot to get excited about with Mindhorn. The cast is deep with talent that comes with a lot to like - particularly the links to a style of humor that is Mighty Boosh, and Alan Partridge. On top of this the location of Isle of Mann, and the 'faded x-list celebrity" held out hope that the tragic and cringey element of the comedy would be well formed. It isn't to be though, and the film never really gets into that space even though it is clearly trying to do so.

There are moments where this works, and it can be occasionally very funny, but mostly it only half-hits, misfires, or gets too silly. The setup takes too long, the final 30 minutes are far too silly in the detail. It does still manage to be quite funny, but I couldn't shake the feeling of it being inconsistent, and lacking a clear conviction for what it was trying to do. I guess part of my reservation was that I was looking for it to be something it wasn't, because I wanted more of that tragic cringe comedy which would have had Mindhorn be more like Partridge - and the bits I enjoyed the most were the bits that pained me the most.

The cast work hard to make it all work, and even when the written elements don't really work, the cast are still good. I am surprised by how many big names and recognizable faces they got involved in this, and then at the same time it also then feels like a missed opportunity that they couldn't make the film as a whole rise to that level.

Well I enjoyed this movie from start to finish. It probably isn't for everyone, e.g. if you are too old or too young or from another planet. But if you remember British cop dramas from the 70s and 80s – with a bit of Starsky and Hutch thrown in (and if you have a sense of humour) then you should find some real laugh-out-loud moments here. I found it great, light-hearted, rather slapstick fun, and I will enjoy seeing this again some day.

"Mindthorn" is one of the newest Netflix productions to be released. However, it is very unusual in that it has a mostly British cast and it was filmed on the Isle of Man, an unusual location for a Netflix film, I know. In fact, most people outside the United Kingdom probably have no idea where the Isle of Man is or if it exists at all! I assure you, it does and the self-governing island is home to tailless cats and motorcycle racing!

When the story begins, you learn that back in the late 1980s there was a British television series called "Mondhorn". It was about some bizarre private detective with a cybernetic eye who went on adventures and solved crimes. The problem is that today, a crazed maniac believes that the show was completely real and is demanding the police let him speak to Mindhorn. As for the actor who played the title character, Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barrett) is a complete mess and can only find work doing commercials for compression socks and adult bladder protection these days! He hopes that by traveling to the island that he'll become a hero and revive his stalled career. But there is one serious problem. Thorncroft is a complete jerk and a dumb one at that. He manages to alienate just about everyone he meets and you cannot help but hate him, but there is far, far more to the story.

Up to the point I've described, the film is a bit hard to take because Thorncroft is such a big jerk.a thorough and complete jerk. Fortunately, the second half of the film improves tremendously and becomes rather funny especially when he ends up teaming up with a guy who calls himself 'the Kestrel'. The film takes a definite turn towards the weird as well as the heroic and actually is very unique and worth seeing.

This film is clearly one that I urge you to keep watchingeven with a slow start. My wife cringed repeatedly and found Thorncroft's character so annoying and awful she wanted to stop watching. As for me, I have a higher threshold for the embarrassing and weird and really enjoyed the film. It's uneven, of course, but a film that ends on a very high note. Hopefully, we'll see more stuff like this from Netflix.

The title says it all; this movie wants to make you laugh and leave you with a smile on your face afterwards. No nonsense, no melodrama.

The characters are real people (although exaggerated slightly), so it's not a parody - just a feel-good movie that's a little on the silly side.

Recommended!