› I’d rather binge on booze than self-denial Emmet Brickowski, The Lego Movie's proletariat protagonist. This article first appeared in the 24 February 2017 issue of the New Statesman, The world after BrexitAbsolutely Fabulous: The Movie arrived last night and, darling, it isn't anything like as bad as some had predicted. Here is a round-up of the reviews. The endless show-business cameos threatened in the trailer (both returning characters and as-themselves celebs) are every bit as wincingly ingratiating as expected – though there’s something admirable about a film that can somehow get Jean-Paul Gaultier and Janette Krankie on screen within five minutes of each other. Fortunately, this stuff is mostly confined to party set-pieces on the film’s fringes. The botox-pumped meat of the thing is all Eddy and Patsy. Read the full review. Jokes spring out at you from our crumpled old friends, sharp and fresh and silly and fast and pleasingly tasteless.
Twenty-five years on, it’s far better than it has any right to be. The girls have still got it. Bring on the Bolly! The less-than-dynamic duo make a characteristically wobbly and hungover reappearance in heels, champagne flutes in one hand and cigarettes in the other. No nonsense about vaping. It’s as if they showed up here through a worm-hole from the 1990s – arriving in 2016 for our summer of non-love, making a game entrance in a country where the recent referendum has caused depression in the hearts of fully 100% of those who voted. Patsy and Edina are here on an honourable mission to cheer us up – bless them. And a fair bit of the time they succeed. There are moments here that make you groan and remind you of other half-baked big spin-offs from TV comedies (for example, Morecambe and Wise vehicle That Riviera Touch). Thankfully, Saunders and Lumley bring such zest to the film that its clunkier moments are easily overlooked. It certainly makes better use of its armies of celebrities than was managed in Zoolander 2.
Bigger, brasher and boozier than ever, Patsy and Eddy's first big-screen outing proves to be a Bollinger-soaked, age-defying, diamond-encrusted triumph – a movie that'll make you laugh so loud and so long you may actually need a facelift. In spite of this drab show of fashionable cameos, the laughs did come and that was primarily down to the one they call Lumley. Every time Patsy was on-screen she drew focus; a sneer here, a raised eyebrow there, or cutting remark that reminded you just why you were watching this nostalgic slapstick in the first place. Amid all the furious attempts to reference contemporary cultural phenomena – Patsy goes on Tinder, Edina is trolled on Twitter – there are enough decent set-pieces to justify the film’s existence: the team’s first encounter with a budget airline is priceless; the notion of Jean-Paul Gaultier as an East End beachcomber is strangely irresistible. Their fizzing chemistry carries us briskly along even when the plot meanders again on the Riviera.
Saunders' script is filled with enough genuine zingers – the best of them delightfully mean – that even a high rate of misfires and an ending nicked from Some Like It Hot can't bog it down completely. This is at its best when it focuses on two women behaving badly, downing Bolly with fags in their hands and drugs in their hair. The laughs come and go, but Edina and Patsy are classics. Sometimes bloody good fun is enough. It’s as good a reason as any for making this sunny, silly rallying cry for irresponsibility, and a better one still for watching it. Director Mandie Fletcher, a veteran of BBC TV comedy including “Blackadder,” “Ab Fab” and “Only Fools and Horses,” keeps the energy high and the pop-up appearances as light as possible. Tumbleweed moments are mercifully few which, considering the flimsiness of the premise and the woodenness of some of the contributors, is quite an achievement. That making-it-up-as-they-go sloppiness has always been part of the Ab Fab brand's charm, but over the course of a 91-minute film the frayed seams and safety pin-fastenings are more obvious.
It's telling that three editors – Anthony Boys, Gavin Buckley and Billy Sneddon – are credited here, and considering how often supporting characters in the subplots drop in and out of focus in the last act, one can only imagine what kind of carnage there was in the editing suite. Read the full review. Utilizing the cutscenes from the video game LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite sees Batman and Superman teaming up to save Gotham City from the combined villainy of Lex Luthor and the Joker. Robin and members of the JLA also pop up at various points in this tongue-in-cheek, family-friendly animated take on the World's Finest. If you're a fan of the game then there's no reason you shouldn't like this movie, but also no reason why you'd probably watch it since it's pretty much what you've already seen except without the interactivity of actually playing the game. So we're going to treat this as an experience for those who are unfamiliar with the game, love DC superheroes or just want a fun kid's movie to watch.
Lex Luthor (voiced by Clancy Brown) is running for President, but is miffed when he loses Gotham's Man of the Year award to Bruce Wayne (Troy Baker). The awards ceremony is crashed by Joker and a slew of other Bat-villains including Two-Face, Penguin, and Riddler. Luthor is intrigued by Joker (Christopher Smith) and has him busted out of Arkham Asylum to help with a grand scheme to not only clinch the Presidential election, but to also bring about the demise of their mutual enemies Batman and Superman (Travis Willingham). Batman, sullen and stubborn crime fighter that he is, rejects Robin's suggestions of getting the Man of Steel's help. Batman will need to learn to ask others for help if he's going to save the day. After doing battle with such escaped villains as Catwoman and Bane, Batman and Robin eventually join forces with Superman to take on Luthor and Joker in a grand battle to save Gotham City. There are plenty of nods to the live-action films of Batman and Superman, from the use of John Williams and Danny Elfman's respective iconic scores to moments lifted directly from the opening credits of Tim Burton's Batman to Joker's hospital destruction in The Dark Knight.
There's also a Robin joke at the end that predates The Dark Knight Rises (and recent comics stories), but rings truer than ever. The sight gags playing on the LEGO form and the humorous interplay between the characters -- especially Robin's vain efforts at impressing Batman and the Caped Crusader's frustration with the sunny, impervious Superman -- make up the bulk of the comedy in the story. The voice cast are all solid, especially Charlie Schlatter's rather sad sack Robin. While the majority of the film is indeed made up of the cutscenes from the game, there is some new footage utilized as connective tissue as well as some tweaks to the original cutscenes (little things like the color and style of Bruce Wayne's limo, for example). Regardless of much of the footage being repurposed, LEGO Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite is nevertheless charming, fun, and humorous stuff that both kids and comics-savvy adults will enjoy. If you have children and want to introduce them to the world of DC superheroes in a family-friendly way then this is a good place to start.