Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans

Orla dreams of being a Celtic warrior woman fighting the Romans.

Horrible Histories move to a movie format rather than the usual TV sketches. The actors are different but the style and humour is the same. It is mostly aimed at children but adults will find a few laughs too.

The budget is clearly low. Most scenes are tightly shot but in places the director had made no attempt to hide the production limits. The costumes and songs are ok. Nick Frost is the stand out performer. The humour is good and the actors throw themselves into the pantomime. It reminded me of Gladiatress (2004). If you're not sure what pantomime is; it's a British thing, see one of ITV's on you tube.

The story is a simplified retelling of the Boudicca rebellion and true to Horrible Histories the basic facts are correct.

'Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans (2019)' isn't very good. It's harmless enough, of course, but it really isn't anything special. I mean, it's just not funny. There are maybe two or three smile-worthy gags but that's about it. The rest of the time, the jokes fall flat and that's an issue when the jokes are, realistically, the entire point of the piece. The narrative is, basically, as basic as possible, focused around a kind of platonic 'Romeo and Juliet' (sans suicide). It wraps itself up in a weirdly rushed and unsatisfying way, backtracking upon its recently established stakes to just sort of finish for no real reason. This is probably because it wants to remain as kid-friendly as possible, despite its numerous on-screen deaths, and requires an overtly 'happy ending' to do so. This is, essentially, the product of a half-baked screenplay. The central character conflict is, too; it heads in a traditional direction but then doesn't get properly addressed in the finale, simply wrapping up as if it's been properly tended to. However, it's probably worth noting that these now glaring narrative issues are, for me, only noticeable in retrospect. That's not because the flick is so engaging so as to make them non-bothersome. In fact, quite the opposite. The story isn't compelling in any real way. It's serviceable stuff but there's no real meat to it. The same can be said of the entire affair, really. Even though it's probably one of the least effective films of the year, it's difficult to actively dislike because it seems earnest and sticks to the very 'DIY' attitude of its source television show. It would've been nice if it had featured that series' original cast but, as it is, it's an average experience that I don't really have any strong feelings about either way. I suppose that says something in itself, doesn't it? 5/10

Humorous historical drama for kids.

This is the full length feature film release, based on the BBC 'CBBC' TV series. Best way to describe this is to think of an educational 'Blackadder' (another humorous TV history series aimed at older kids and adults).

The plot revolves around the Roman Empire and the rise of Boudicca, stars many familiar British actors, with loads of silly toilet humour and several musical numbers which were just ok.

We took nine-year-old granddaughter who fidgeted a lot, this film probably would have been better as a made for TV special. Stay in your seats while the end credits roll for some funny accompanying commentary from a rat puppet.

I must admitI didn't have high hopes for this but the film didn't sway from the horrible histories TV and stage formula and it worked well. If you expecting high brow then you will be disappointed but if it's a top British cast with very British jokes you want then you are in luck.

The film passes very quickly and, as the plot is aimed at kids, it isn't hard to follow. It obviously isn't high budget and very much feels like a horrible histories TV special but that doesn't detract from the fun. The film is a little bit of a slow burner but soon catches on.

It's harmless family fun for a 90 minutes and I even learnt a few things while laughing, the whole key to horrible histories success.

A Horrible Histories movie should definitely include the amazing comedians of TV's Horrible Histories, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick! The movie is not bad, made in the style of the series, but it could have been way better. I hope that in the sequel we get to see some of our favorite comedians.