Jackboots on Whitehall (2010) User Reviews

Funny and well-written but more please...

[Aidan21 · 6/10 · 16 October 2010]

After seeing the tag line on the trailer "Team America meets Inglourious Basterds", I was eager to see this. And it didn't disappoint. Well not too much.

Some may bemoan the puppetry, you can see the rivets a mile away on the joints (imagine the elbow of an Action Man figure), but the non-stop action distracts you from this. It's funny too, delivering excellent caricatures of historical characters, as well as a huge amount of comical references to other films.

However, the nature of a puppetry film is that a lot of hard work goes into it, and as a consequence, the length of the film cannot be too long. This film was so good, that I almost forgot at some parts that it wasn't a live action film. So when it ended, I was left wanting more. I felt as if not enough had happened, and was slightly disappointed.

But not to worry, it's still worth a watch.

It;s funny but might not be for everyone

[Gordon-11 · 23 January 2012]

This film is a stop motion animation about a farmer's crucial role in helping Britain to defeat the Nazi Germans in the Second World War.

"Jackboots on Whitehall" is a comical rewrite of the British history. It has many R rated stuff, such as gory scenes and politically incorrect jokes. The jokes are at times offensive, but they are so funny that will make you laugh. Notice the map of Britain in the film, it is quite funny! The character designs are good, you can clearly see the difference between the British and the Germans. And the female characters are all so attractive! "Jackboots on Whitehall" is not for everyone. If you are in the mood for something different, you might want to watch this one.

Awful really awful

[thistleplant · 1/10 · 7 February 2012]

This movie was truly awful. in fact it was the fist time i have ever walked out of a cinema due the quality of a film.

First of all i didn't laugh once and in a comedy this is a really crucial element. i found the characters and dialogue borderline offencive and I thought the cast were really letting them selves down by taking part in this venture.

The only positive i have towards the film was the animation that was at best passable. All in all i felt that this film had no right showing on any cinema screen and could possible be the worst film i have ever seen. My advise would be to any person who thought this looked interesting or different from the trailer like i did, run , run far away and don't look back this truly is one of the worst things ever put on screen

Audacious, wickedly funny puppet show

[LCShackley · 7/10 · 30 July 2011]

This movie is NOT for people whose idea of humor is "South Park." It's more for people who enjoy "Little Britain" or "League of Gentlemen." I laughed all the way through, not only because of the jokes (some of which appear to be far too subtle for most of the reviewers here), but because of the audacious premise of using what appear to be Barbies and GI Joes to "act" in a WW2 film. If you don't know the Ealing comedies, or British war films, or history for that matter, you will probably scratch your head at this film. But if you enjoy the quirky, or you were ever a little boy who made war SFX while playing with toy soldiers, you just might enjoy it. The voice cast features some of the finest British actors.

This is NOT a movie for kids, as there is a fair amount of "language" (mostly from an insane vicar played by Richard E. Grant), some brief sexual humor, and some graphic, bloody violence (which nevertheless is very funny since it involves the dismemberment of plastic action figures). Enjoy this weird spoof of war movie clichés, and don't complain about the quality of the puppets. If you do, you're completely missing the point.

How did they get away with this?

[Simonster · 1/10 · 29 March 2011]

I would love to know how writer-directors Edward and Rory McHenry pulled this off. That they were probably drunk as skunks or sniffing adhesives when they thought this up is understandable. You need some kind of off-the-wall craziness at times. And the idea, making a puppet film about the Nazis invading England is also Class A. Even satirizing war films and any other target within reach ticks the right boxes. But...

Jackboots on Whitehall is one of the worst films I watched at last year's Cannes film festival. As in it's rare I can think of no reason to watch it again, ever! Even for fans of bad films, and bad films can be hypnotically fun in a special way, there is nothing here worth slowing down for and looking at.

Despite the incredible voice cast assembled, the script is dire. The jokes, verbal and visual, and are non-existent. The puppets are cheap and cheerless. Unlike Team America: World Police, there is nothing of any depth going on here whatsoever. Jackboots is the cinematic equivalent of a group of seven year old boys playing and getting rowdier and rowdier at each turn. Sure, they're having fun but it's not fun to watch or listen to.

Viewed at the Festival Cannes 2010 but I wish I hadn't.

a puppet film with no strings, no plot and no interest

[the_steel_rat1 · 1/10 · 15 July 2010]

My god this film is bad, saw it last weekend.. The production value and quality of the film seems to be of questionable standards, this could be due to the low budget or just bad direction, the visual effects techniques that was used are in fact just action men on sticks and has about the same ground breaking impact on visual effects techniques as as a rather small wooden trowel has on a plant pot, the action men adverts back in the 1970s had better effects and better directed than this poor production, id rather spend an hour trying to poke my eyes out with a rusty spoon than expose them to this drivel again enough said .. see it at your own boredom.

Who could this drivel possibly appeal to?

[spasmspasm · 1/10 · 14 March 2011]

The guidelines for IMDb state that a minimum of 10 lines of text must be used for each review and thats thats a real task in this case, considering there is nothing at all redeeming in this travesty of puppetry. I've seen a lot of movies in my time but this has got to be in my top 5 worst ever films, whatever you do don't ever under any circumstances pay money to see this. Don't even buy it for your mother in-law out of spite, as the creators don't deserve another chance to rob the people of this planet of their time and money.

So lets get down to why it was so bad. The puppets are action figures and Barbie dolls which can be great ala "Robot Chicken" style stop motion animation but not when you just move them around and film them from the waist up. The script was so bad that even big name actors couldn't make it work, it was simply unfunny, uninteresting and overall a complete waste of life.

This title has been compared to the film "Team America" which sits proudly on my shelf at home, but the only thing they have in common is that they both have puppets. Im actually ashamed that I watched this film and I will struggle to erase it from my mind.

Backs to the wall, but freedom will prevail

[russellalb · 8/10 · 20 June 2010]

The credits at the end said 'Many puppets were harmed during the making of this film' which is certainly true. It's hard to describe this film, a bit like a mix of Team America (but these aren't marionettes), and a whole bunch of war films, I loved spotting the references from everything from Zulu to Apocalypse Now. There's a love story, the Hollywood style inclusion of an American, Billy Fiske, taking a main part (Tom Cruise wanted to do this in a proposed film 'The Few' about the real Billy Fiske). I loved it and gave it 8 stars, but will it be you're cup of tea? I don't know but hopefully there'll be plenty more reviews to guide you and explain this film better than me before it's released.

Comic strips, sans the comedy

[RogerBorg · 2/10 · 21 March 2015]

I can see what they were going for with this film, a knock-about pastiche of the Victor, done comically badly with tabletop dioramas and Action Men and Barbie style dolls - and right there was the first swing- and-a-miss.

With the voice cast and budget, they could and should have licensed actual Action Man. And surely the distinctive looks of the British Sindy doll would have been more apropos than Barbie.

So the stylistic tone was flat from the beginning, and then we get to the sheer woodenness of the (non) animation. Yes, I get that they're just moving dolls around, but there was no personality in the movement, nor expression in the faces. It was freakish and creepy and that jars with the comic tone that they were striving for. Rather than appearing deliberately and charmingly awful, it feels like this is the best that they could achieve, and shoddy work can only receive pity praise.

On the comic tone, strive as they might, it mostly failed. There are a few, a very few, smile (or grimace) inducing lines, but no consistency either in writing or scripting, with scenes dribbling on to no good purpose or conclusion. The pacing is also erratic, and the editing lazy. I suspect that every second of footage ended up on screen.

All in all a dire, disappointing mess that blows both the premise and the stellar cast on a dull, pointless exercise.

The glaring obviousness of the shilling in the early reviews and review- ratings doesn't do it any favours either. This is not a film that can stand on its own merits, and instead needs to rely on the kind of propaganda and suppression of which Goebbels would have been proud.

what was I watching?

[swalbj86 · 1/10 · 14 March 2011]

I've no idea. Was it supposed to be a British attempt at Team America? If it was it was truly abysmal, 30 mins in and I realised I hadn't laughed or even chuckled once. At least Team America was brave in that it set out to ridicule everyone involved. For example Team America used a modern day scenario, and took the rise out of the liberal Hollywood elite - or what would be our 'luvvies' The problem is this lame attempt was voiced over by these very same luvvies, so that was out of the question. So what did they do, played safe and set it WW2 and had the Nazis,Hitler & Himmler as the fall guys AGAIN. I wouldn't mind but it wasn't even clever or witty let alone groundbreaking. I ended up fast forwarding it after 40 mins, it was that bad. If you chuckled at Team America then avoid this guff like the plague.

Disgraceful, Borderline racist.

[hay730 · 1/10 · 10 September 2012]

I struggled to get through this rubbish, I found the racial stereotypes to be quite shocking, even with an " attempt" at humor you still need to keep good taste in mind, I must have missed something with this drivel, The portrayal of nationalities was far from humorous, I've got a pretty wide humor tolerance and for this to offend me prompting my first ever review may hint at my disdain, I'd have Ewan Macgregors headexamined for taking this role, the same with the other voice actors, That said the puppets and the way the stop motion was done was good but not good enough to cover up the overall shambles this attempt was, I'm annoyed enough to contemplate reporting it for the way it portrays the Scots, English and Indian people in it, and it making one person feel that way pretty much makes a case, A turd of a film.

Divides opinion!

[girlychemist-7-67226 · 8/10 · 21 March 2011]

Maybe it's because I grew up on Supermarionation but I loved this! The references to war films - and their clichés, they come thick and fast. Trying to guess who voiced which character. It also for me referenced British children's comics from the 70s, for e.g. Commando for the boys and Bunty for the girls. The animation was bad enough to be inspired. The individual characterisations made me think of the old Margaret Rutherford films. The young are all beautifully bland and everyone over 40 is a grotesque. If you want a film that evokes wet Saturday afternoons sat on the hearth rug in front of a black and white TV clutching your comic, this is it. It could have only been improved if Al Murray had been the village pub landlord!

British, epic, puppets.

[yamz69 · 9/10 · 9 October 2010]

Stan Steel, i have no clue what film YOU were watching, but i for one thoroughly enjoyed this flick... Winston Churchill? As a puppet? Oh my, genius! This film can't get a 10/10 from me personally, i mean, it's no Schindler's list, or Titanic, it's not about to become an instant classic -- take it with a pinch of salt, what you get for your time is a hilarious take on WWII Britain, with a great cast of voice actors. I'm so glad this wasn't another hack at American humour. The film was well executed, admittedly the effects weren't Transformers style, but it just added to the humour of the film. Conclusion: an extremely cutesy British comedy... with puppets (:

Brilliant!

[meguns · 9/10 · 28 July 2010]

My friends and I waited over an hour in line for tickets to this movie at the Edinburgh Film Festival as it was touted as one of the top 10 to see. The trouble was finding tickets as both screenings were sold out! The organisers added it to best of show on the last day of the festival - luckily. I absolutely loved it! Brilliant! Stan Steel how did you see the movie again in July??? EIFF ended June 26th and I was at the last screening. I know it definitely hasn't been released because I've been tracking its status online. The art direction and animation were mind-blowing! At points I even had to remind myself that these were in fact puppets! I definitely recommend seeing this whenever it's out in theatres. Tally ho!

Inglorious Thunderbird Basterds

[TerryDaniel · 9/10 · 17 October 2010]

The invasion of England has happened the Nazi swine have invaded.The whole of the British Army is stuck in Dunkirk.A Sleepy country town must save England and seek help from SCOT-LAND only to find the Scots are still a bunch of savages.Will the threat of the Nazis be wiped out will they be sent packing down the hole they made.

Funnily enough I have been waiting for a film like this for years now and finally here it is. Jackboots on Whitehall is a great piece of work.It was a labour of love for the creators.

I saw it at the Odeon in Panton Street which it seemed was the only cinema to be showing this.

Jackboots on Whitehall will be forgotten quick and I doubt it will reach the box office top ten.What a thoroughly enjoying rump and did I mention its a puppet film but a bit more.Of course some of the jokes are obvious and you can see them coming before they happen.Lots of laugh out loud moments such as the protection of F.A.N.Y,The polish builder who just wont stop working,and the Raj army sitting on top of the roof of the bus they travel on.The Braveheart jokes were a grown fest. My only problem with this I would of cut maybe 10 minutes out but not sure where from. Jackboots on Whitehall had quite a good soundtrack.This for me did a little more than Team America but there really cant be a comparison because there not even made by the same creators but these are the two racy puppet films. The film is filled with Allo,Allo moments as well as spoofs Where Eagles Dare and Battle of Britain. This is easily in my Top Ten films of the year.

My God I think my sides split!

[chucknorrisrules · 10/10 · 21 August 2012]

It may look like a team America knock off (actually maybe it is) but it is an utterly hilarious team America knock off! The idea of alternate history is brilliant. I won't spoil the jokes, but some of them had my insides aching from laughter. True there is some British humour that some people may not get, but the sheer ludicrousness of the film's premise is just inspired. The voice acting is really good, with a decent cast.

We start off after Dunkirk, only the British Army has not escaped, and nobody is left to fight. London comes under attack and the English are forced north to Scotland with the help of a farmer from Kent, and the inhabitants of the village, Winston Churchill, an American, aaaand...I won't spoil the outcome, but needless to say, you will be very much amused if you aren't laughing your head off.

Not as politically edgy as Team America or blatantly vulgar, but if you like British comedy, give it a go! I may be biased, but I completely loved it.

Excellent Comedy/Adventure For History Buffs

[verbusen · 8/10 · 18 November 2020]

I was reading about alternate history outcomes of WW2 and wanted to enjoy a film about it. I had seen and really enjoyed "It Happened Here" and almost watched it again but decided to look for another title. Many were unavailable but this one was, I'm happy I decided to watch. A puppet war comedy film, in my opinion, will have a small target audience. I believe that this audience would mainly be males. Now the puppet aspect may limit it further as not many people will watch a full length puppet film. I know about Team America and its success, so I take it that it was the inspiration for making the film. Being a British film makes a lot of sense. The Brits are known for all of the Anderson's productions which I grew up on in the 1960s to present. I actually showed my wife an episode of Stingray last week by coincidence and she enjoyed it, it was not only cool to watch but fun to crack jokes to. I completely understand why so many hate this film, times have changed since the 1960s. Back then (in the USA) males would watch war shows that glorified heroics. Then the Korean War and Vietnam War happened and views about the military's status changed in USA society. To serve was glorified prior to the 1970s. Then gradually, military service was considered not glamorous and for people that could not cut it in the non-military economic world. In the UK which has had to use its military on its own soil, I suspect that today their is more "patriotism" for military service then in the USA, despairingly labeled as the world's policeman. I don't fit the USA mold as I am a veteran, and a proud citizen. Since I enjoy puppet films this is a natural choice for me, but I doubt my wife would want to watch it. This movie was made for males who love alternative history, puppets and escapism.

really enjoyed

[tom-catton · 8/10 · 6 September 2013]

I am currently 15 minutes into this film and can already see he who rated it 1/10 is a numpty with the sense of humour of a bag of cement! Warning maybe spoilers!!!!!! All star cast, great animation and any film that rips the piddle out of the Germans is alright by me lol. looking forward to watching the rest of the film, which then I shall write a full review. I cant stop laughing. A Polish man fixing the telegraph pole, typical modern Britain! Great references to other films!! Just a really good Laugh out loud film. Will write a better review once I've seen it all!!! but must say, im really lookingforward to it and just trying to fill up space to fall inline with IMDb's saft 10 line minimum review We shall retreat to Scotland!!!!