The DVD for this film states that it stars the creme de la creme of English comedy talent. Wow, is this a depressing claim, i will deal with this first: Richard Ayoade was brilliant in Darth Mehrenghi and Nathan Barley, as was Julian Barrat, here however, although the material for their scenes is somehow clever and original, their 5 minutes on camera stay on the wrong side of a lame 2 minute sketch. Noel Fielding proves finally that he can act but his scene goes nowhere and instead we are left with the rotten yoghurt of English comedy for the majority of the film. Man, they could not have found two trolls with less screen chemistry. If the filmmakers had been actually trying to be obnoxious, became self aware and wrote it into the film i might have understood, I kept waiting for a sense of "this is what we intended". But this never happened because these guys are meant to be likable. Its not just that there performances are weak; they don't do anything which seems like they even enjoy each others presence. Anyway, I feel that this school of English humour has taken the risky freeform agenda of Python and mixed it up with a strange Chris Morris style darkness. The point of Morris is, as I paraphrase from a recent interview, not to do comedy and try and make people laugh, but to be funny accidentally. Well this movie was not funny in the slightest or dark and edgy although it tried to take the "oh the little things make life beautiful" nuance from Amelie and crash it headlong into the hollow grace of Being John Malkovich. The story was self indulgent neurotic brain theatre without a strong enough lead to compel any sympathy from me. Really, the lead Edward Hogg seems like a good actor, but he was given terrible direction from a director clearly obsessed with the visual feastyness of it all. The visuals are clever to an extent. Interiors are generated out of subconscious imagery and exteriors seem far away dreamlike, and it seems like the entire film could have been shot on one set. This I liked and added a nice theatre design touch to a movie. However when it goes over the top, for example with the motion capture models and the computer animated landscapes, I felt like the thing became unwelcoming, and no longer compassionate to its audience: The world we are shown is more ugly than magical, yet somehow we are made to believe that this is some kind of wonderland-Gilliamesq-Quay Brothers- fairy-tale universe that we would want to be a part of. An audience should want to go on the journey the films protagonists undertake, yet their trip was self-inflicted monotony with no silver lining, thus alienating anyone who dared to feel empathy for the films core which is essentially blib bla bloop. 2 stars out of 10 for the condom dispenser joke.
Review of Bunny and the Bull
