All the Queen's Men

After all the bashing it received elsewhere, I'd like to join the majority here saying this is a vastly underrated flick. It's a WW-II-comedy in "Some-like-it-hot-"drag, tinted by a touch of tragedy.

Though LeBlanc is not that convincing, the self-finding of the young decoder and the love story of Eddie Izzard are deeply emotional and worthwhile throughout. Beautiful Krebitz' character is one of the witty girls often found in war-times Germany, though her banter is toned down in speed to let even Austrians understand the meaning of her lines.

Great cast, good story with only minor plot holes (yes, you should watch it till it's over) and some really funny gags. Good blend of war drama and comedy.

This German-Austrian-Hungarian-USA co-production was directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and stars Matt Leblanc. The premise was that British and American agents during the Second World War tried to infiltrate the espionage mechanism in Berlin by disguising themselves in drag, in order to steal a precious Enigma encoding and decoding machine from an all-female factory. That was plausible enough (the image of Leblanc in a frumpy "German lady" dress aside), but I didn't hold much hopes of coming out of the movie satisfied. Well, I was disappointed, but in a good way. This is a breezy, entertaining, light-hearted action flick. How could one not like Udo Kier as a perverted Nazi general? How could one not love Eddie Izzard as the British drag queen who teaches his team the ropes of hair, makeup, and frocks?

Izzard, mostly known as a standup comedian, turned in a bravura performance, starting out with a hilarious rendition of Marlene, and ending with deceptively spirited performance of imperialist German favorites, which completely fooled and kept Izzard's Nazi audience enrapt while the espionage mission climaxed, literally right behind the stage curtains.

This film seems to have been made for American tastes, judging by how much of the humor content is directed toward stereotypes of British fuddy-duddiness and arrogance. It also suffers from a few plot implausibilities. The sixtyish Archie (played by veteran British character actor, James Cosmo) is a beefy, mustachioed walrus of a man who, even after shaving his face, couldn't pass for a woman plausibly no matter if he was all dowdied up in a head scarf and a charwoman's dress. Polyglot math genius Johnno Johnson--played by David Birkin, who some of you might recognize from his role as a "young" Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek:TNG episode where a handful of Enterprise crew are suddenly turned into twelve-year-olds--was sent off on this mission instead of being kept on home turf, where his linguistic and cryptographic abilities would be much more valuable. And finally, the escape sequence at the end requires suspension of disbelief, quite literally.

Still, these flaws seem minor when compared to the overall entertainment value of the movie. Izzard's performance as a whole, Cosmo's endearing takes as a "grandmother" to a German war orphan, and Leblanc's hilarious seduction of Kier highlight an overall very enjoyable 105 minutes.

I have seen far worse movies than this one, which has far higher ratings. Don't believe the rating on this movie, it is a fun movie to watch.

Consider this as a low budge comedy, you are not watching it because of its intense actions, or serious historical stories, etc, just watch it to get entertained.

Some of the scenes were a little out of logic, obviously they can't do that in real life. The funniest line is the "be-sexual" scene.

Tony actually looks pretty womanlike, it was funny to see him in the black dress, and singing those German songs. Those songs sound pretty good, too.

I rate this movie 7, but since it has a low rating. Therefore, I am rating it 8 to increase its rating a little.

Brilliant I had bought this off HMV and after reading so many reviews I was expecting an awful movie but to my surprise it is brilliant. Eddie Izzard is fantastic in this movie. His relationship with Franz is brilliant you can sort of feel a connection. Matt LeBlanc is not too bad in this movie but I believe he could of done a much better job. David Birkin is fantastic. He really suited his character and portrayed him extremely well. Most of the reviews are comparing this movie to "Privates on parade" which is stupid. Privates on parade is an awful movie. I watch it as John Clesse was in it but he hardly said anything. This movie is nothing like Privates on Parade this movie is fantastic. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is an Eddie Izzard fan. His character in this movie is brilliant.

Look, I know we're all different, but this poor movie's gotten a heck of a bashing all over the net -- and it doesn't really deserve it.

Yes, the first ten minutes are slow. They're funny, but they're slow. And yes, the movie has a different tempo than most audiences are used to.

But Matt LeBlanc is wonderful as "Agent Almost", the guy who tries with all his studly spy-boy might, but never quite gets the job done. There's a brilliant sequence 3/4th's of the way through the film where our hero slithers, shimmies, and dodges his secret agent man way around a German town, trying to get some information -- at the same time that his very ragtag group (plus one fiesty librarian) tries their own hand at the spy stuff. Guess who gets the goods?

Floating behind the drag and spy jokes are some striking and raw scenes of war from the point of view of the women and children left behind. They create a rich backdrop, as well giving life to some of the motivation behind the characters' actions.

Give it a chance -- it's a good movie.