Review of Jolly Boys Last Stand, The

Introduction

I`ll get the crushing disappointment out of the way right now - although Andy Serkis and Sasha Baron Cohen star, they are not as Gollum and Ali G. This is not the creature from the recesses middle earth meets the Berkshire streetwise satirist in some sort of parallel universe (boo!). It is in fact a rather low budget British movie about what happens when the lad culture styled men that Loaded Magazine fed off, have to actually grow up.

As you`d imagine from a movie whose existence has been largely ignored for six years, it is quite a crudely put together affair. Taking the form of a home video documenting the final days of a drinking club, there is an unambiguously British feel to proceedings, complete with rainy golf courses, semi detached houses and supermarket car parks

Spider (Serkis) is finally wedding his girlfriend Annie (Rebecca Craig), and therefore putting an end to the drinking to club of which he is head honcho, or `El Presidente`. One person who is not all to happy about this turn of events is fellow club member Des (Milo Twomey - what a GREAT name), who is determined to put a cat (or more of a tiger) amongst the pigeons with his `countdown to the wedding` video.

Also along for the ride is Vinnie (SBC), a newly loved up, sex-mad member of the gang, for and whom filming himself in a number of sexual positions with his girlfriend seems a perfectly adequate wedding gift. What emerges from the 86 minutes of documented footage is a British film very of its time and, unfortunately, not a shadow of some of its cast`s other, more expensive, projects.

Video

The undeniably non existent budget obviously has its limitations - any real cameras for instance. Yet, the producers make-do without, and the camcorder-style vision never becomes irritating, which is some feat. Maybe it`s because such footage has a very personal feel, maybe it`s because it`s what`s beneath it all that REALLY counts? Whatever the answer to that particular question is, for some reason it just works, and that`s all that needs to be said.

The 16:9 aspect ratio is, however, not really appropriate. Ok, so films should really be in this picture to look like - well - films, but considering `The Jolly Boys` last stand`s home video appearance, then a standard 4:3 would have been better suited.

Audio

Dolby 2.0 works perfectly, although the overall sound quality isn`t too impressive.

Some nice indie/new wave-y music ably soundtracks the film, with the like of Half Man Half Biscuit and the long forgotten `Sultans of Ping` providing some insightful and very British tunes. In fact, it looks as if Writer/Director Christopher Payne just included all his favourite songs in the film which, given half the chance, anyone would do!

Features

Featured on the disc is an Audio commentary from Serkis, Twomey and Craig plus the original cast auditions. Stay well away from either - it would have to be a very rainy in your part of the country to even contemplate watching this drizzle. Presumably the extremely low budget didn`t lend itself to there being a multitude of left-overs to dish up on the DVD.

Conclusion

Despite the title, this is not an overly upbeat film, as it deals with one of those unspoken and oft-skirted issues; male friendships. Like it or not, whatever joy there is when a man and woman say `I do`, there`s always an equal amount of heartache for the men left behind. Nursing their pints and licking their wounds, every night 25-30 year-old men up and down the British Isles say a silent prayer to the death of a relationship whilst contemplating their new life to be … and that`s just the bridegroom.

As a movie, the overall package is a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are a few good performances, a nice narrative and a whole lotta `honesty` in the way the story is delivered. Yet on the flip side, a great amount of potential remains untapped. By showing the film through the camcorder lens, there is much we don`t see and we`d like to.

Arguably this is a strength - the unseen is, to many, the most fascinating aspect of anything (remember all that `it`s what DOESN`T scare you …` rhetoric about `Alien`?), but it gives the film a very linear style which, unfortunately, doesn`t do it any favours. Further pulling the batting average down is the lack of obvious humour - there`s a lot of tongue in cheek stuff, and even cheeky stuff, but you almost feel guilty for laughing at it, and I can`t be sure that was the intention.

All this adds up to a perfectly likeable, but by no means loveable, British Movie. At a time when British comedy and acting were at a crossroads, this film probably had more of an impact, but with the variety of fantastic home grown TV funnies and weepies on DVD that have been produced since, it is left almost redundant. As Roy Walker used to say "It`s good, but it`s not the one".

Fork out your readies with caution.