La British Compagnie

Having just seen this, and being old enough to remember the original series, it was, as expected, not terribly good. One of the things that makes the original series so good, the interplay between the cool and elegant Sergeant Wilson, and the pompous Captain Mainwaring. In the real world war two, the original Sergeant Wilson, John Le Mesurier, had been a tank regiment Captain, and the original Captain Mainwaring, Arthur Lowe, had been a ranker, a radar technician, and the role-reversal in the series worked so well..... the little class nuances between the two are completely lost in the film, . Michael Gambon carries off Godfrey to a tee, but the rest of the cast just don't seem to get it. Where was Frazer's gloom and doom? Jonesy a cook in the Sudan? have the producers not seen the 'dirty fakir' episode? Hodges barely gets a look in, no verger, and the vicar appears to have turned straight....there are so many little things in the original series that make it so funny, all those little things are missing here, along with the utterly spot on comic timing of the original time-served cast.

Some of the script writing is dire, with no attempt made to get it historically right, the Godfrey sisters to miss Winters, 'where will you be next, New York, Paris... difficult given that Paris was under German occupation at the time... and a U boat surfacing in broad daylight in the bay? Tank traps on the beach at the bottom of a cliff, but no wire or mines? , wire and mines would have put Corporal Jones right in his comedic element!

And as others have observed, Mrs Mainwaring is an original 'er indoors, never actually seen in the series,It was one of the elements of the original that Mainwaring would do absolutely anything to avoid his wife, why change this?

The biggest problem I had watching it though, was that I kept hearing the lines coming out of the on-screen actors, but in my head I was hearing them coming out of the mouths of the original cast,and it just can't live up to it, it's like a huge shadow cast over the whole film, somewhat akin to the relationship between the TV Sweeney, and the dreadful Nick Love film..timing is everything!

As a Dad's Army fan (and with a keen interest in the history of the REAL Home Guard of 1940 - 44) I realised this was never going to 'measure up' to the original TV series. In fact I thought it was going to be terrible (!) but went along to see it if only to tick the box. It was better than I expected and it was a pleasant surprise. Sadly I think that Tom Courtenay 'killed' LCpl Jones's character with a very wooden performance. However, there was good effort from the other actors. I thought that Toby Jones (Mainwaring) dominated the screen when he appeared and captured Mainwaring's flaws (and attributes) very well. I enjoyed Michael Gambon's Godfrey very much, and Bill Nighy's Sgt Wilson was an interesting re- interpretation that was nicely done. There were other good performances too (e.g Mrs Pike etc).

As well as a some chuckles, there were touching moments, and I think it captured the ethos of the time well (patriotism, paranoia reference the enemy, 'all pulling together' etc). In all I would call it a pleasant film to watch, and a homage of some sort to the original series and the historical Home Guard.

It was a nice touch to set the film in 1944 when the Home Guard was becoming ever more irrelevant. The original series (many have surmised) only covered the historical period of 1940 - 42. I've always regretted that and would have like to have seen the series set over the full 1940-44 period with perhaps a single episode covering their return to civilian life in December 1944 to round it off. The last year would have been quite comedic as Mainwaring might have struggled to enthuse the men as they became less relevant to to the war, and quite touching too.

I wouldn't listen to too many negative reviews, the film is worth seeing. I'd rather it had been made than not, even if it only points people towards the original series and reminds them that the Home Guard was real and that they lost 1,200 people to enemy action in WW2 (mainly air raids while on duty etc), and also that although they never faced an invasion (a real concern in 1940-41) they didn't know that at the time, but they volunteered anyway.

Lets face it, everyone involved in this was on a hiding to nothing from the start. If this film had too many nods to the original (and beloved) TV series, it would be criticised. If it tried to be its own beast, it would be criticised.

In the end it fails as a film because a) it tries to be a bit of both, and b) it just simply isn't funny.

There are some talented people involved, all doing very respectful takes on the original characters, but they are working with a weak (and often historically inaccurate) script that means they are lumbered doing imitations, rather than putting their own spin on the roles.

It's a shame this isn't good, but I can't say I'm surprised.

When news first emerged of a Dad's Army film early last year, the main cry from the fans and general public alike was 'but why?'. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the end product does absolutely nothing to alter this.

Beautiful German spy Rose Winters (Zeta-Jones) comes into a small town to gather information for the Nazis, blinds everyone with her looks, manipulates them to her bidding while everyone runs around suspecting everyone else but her of undercover nefariousness. Yes, it really is that derivative. It's a plot that could have been lifted lock, stock from a hundred TV movies produced from 1960 until 1980, but tellingly probably none since.

It's obvious that a lot of thought has been put in to casting as every character is perfectly shaped to match his respective character from the original series, and every one really tries to do as good a job as possible. Admittedly Bill Nighy is incapable of playing anyone other than Bill Nighy but it works as bumbling Oxford boy Sergeant Wilson, Toby Jones is almost indistinguishable from Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, Tom Courtenay does a fair Clive Dunn impression and Gambon was born to play Godfrey. But casting alone does not a film make.

At its core, the original Dad's Army series was little more than a bunch of men in a church hall bickering with each other, the different character's unique and exaggerated qualities carefully weaving a different angle into the argument and comedy as a whole. That can, and very successfully did, work for thirty minutes, but clearly it's another thing entirely to treble the running time and expect it to still function at the desired level. So the writers, as is customary, took the whole thing out of its comfort zone with a more (supposedly) extensive plot. The problem is that the plot, script and dialogue are all utterly dreadful. It is simply not funny, nor is it interesting. At no point do you care one jot what happens to the characters or the storyline. Stir in a complete lack of humour and you're left with a hollow shell of a movie that drags along and leaves you feeling utterly cheated. It manages to lack fun, pace, spirit and perhaps most surprisingly of all, nostalgia.

It's good that the home front's respective wives get some screen- time, particularly Mrs Mainwaring who was never more than a sullen passing reference in the series, but it still doesn't help.

The film is littered with tired innuendos that are seemingly delivered at times with embarrassment, and the occasional poorly timed moments of slapstick are cringe worthy. It's telling that the outtakes at the end of the movie are far funnier than anything in the film itself, although most of the audience will have rapidly headed for the exit by then like home fans fleeing a drubbing from a local rival.

Is Dad's Army a missed opportunity or an inevitable disappointment? It's difficult to care. Either way it's badly written, dull and simply not funny.

I grew up with the 1968 series Dads Army. It sat cheerily alongside other quality Brit comedies in a similar vein, such as It Ain't Half Hot Mum and complimented top US military comedy shows, such as Hogans Hero's.

That said, much as I desperately wanted to love the new film based on this wonderful series it simply lacks the clever comedic wit and wry humour of its predecessor. Indeed, it would be fair to say it comes armed with everything except humour. This film offers up great sets, a good choice of location, excellent costumes, a predictable but not unlikable story and a stellar cast.

Sadly, that's about it. The comedy is thin on the ground and a good portion of any humour there is amounts to very innocuous, mildly sexual jokes, mostly directed at Catherine Zeta Jones, spy character. "Did you slip her a sausage?" one woman asks Jones the butcher.

Simply put, this is such a terrible waste. A more polished script, infused with comedy of the period and maybe a few new twists, could have seen this film shine, paying homage to a wonderful series I can still happily watch 47 years later. Instead, what you get, is weak tea without the sugar. I'm sure Arthur Lowe's, Captain Mainwaring, would not have been impressed. Four out of ten from me.