Kill Keith

Being laid up with a bad back, I thought I'd while away the hours catching up on some particularly low rated Comedy films. IMDb rates this as a 3.4, the same as 'Jack and Jill' Wow, what a difference that should be! Whilst the crassness is similar between the 2 films, the unexpectedly quality of the acting here ensured that I was fully awake throughout this movie and I found it entertaining enough to try and set the record straight on IMDb. Compared to the other film in my Tramadol induced semi-coma, this should rate a 7, although extra points are awarded for not spending loads of cash and getting celebs out of their comfort zone. Excellent effort Cheggers!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Danny (Marc Pickering) has got a new job at a television studio- as a lowly studio hand and tea boy, but has dreams of working his way up to the top, and getting his dream girl Dawn (Susannah Fielding). But her co presenter, the arrogant, egotistical Cliff (David Easter) wants to firmly keep him in his place, even though he's on the verge of losing his job and being replaced. His possible replacements include Joe Pesquale, Tony Blackburn...and Keith Chegwin! Meanwhile, a breakfast presenter serial killer is on the loose.

Although he is indeed recognised as a household name around the country and still gets some recognition from the public, Keith Chegwin remains a public figure whose finest work I would be unable to know. Still, he is the focus of this off the wall little piece that is aiming for somewhere high but misfires somewhere quite far off the deep end.

It's obvious what the makers of this were aiming for, an ironic, post modern comedy horror, with Keith 'Cheggers' Chegwin as the dastardly villain. The result, sadly, is an embarrassingly amateurish, low budget effort, that gets steadily more cack handed the more it goes on. It completely forgets the whole 'Cheggers-as-a-serial-killer' schtick and concentrates on a slushy, melodramatic 'will they, won't they' love plot between the two main characters.

But this aside, the film is cheap looking, boring, unfunny, not as smart as it thinks it is and just a low budget monstrosity. *

To a certain rarefied demographic, the idea of having beloved kids TV icon and all-round good Chegg Keith 'Cheggers' Chegwin star in a Chegg smashing, daytime TV trashing, 'Cheggers slays Pap' type of celebrity baiting satire is inspired, and just might find favour with any B-Movie maniacs who are currently oblivious to the UK's most ironic and sublimely chronic television personality, as this gory satire is so deliciously silly, and so unrepentantly absurd, that the clumsily titled 'Kill Keith' might, perhaps, introduce the altogether baffled, non-UK viewer into the iconoclastic inanity of pint-sized, sadistically re-invented, munchkin-voiced maniac Keith Chegwin!

Perhaps, to fully appreciate the broad, blood-slathered slapstick that 'Kill Keith' so zealously utilizes requires that the viewer suspend heroic levels of disbelief, otherwise the frequently unsubtle sitcom, pseudo-slasher shenanigans might finally prove to be a trifle tiresome. 'Kill Keith' is a fitfully amusing satire that might have been more successful as a more condensed 45-minute version, as the whimsical premise of an ostensibly squeaky clean TV personality caught in the murderous midst of a 'Breakfast Cereal Killer' death frenzy, sadly, was a little too 'over-Chegged' for my tastes, but if taken as a 'so-bad-it's-good' type of majestic misfire 'Kill Keith' is certainly not without misguided merit, not least being the likeable, agreeably frothy performances by luscious Susannah Fielding and delightfully nerdy Marc Pickering, both expressing a benign, wide-eyed ingenuousness that goes some way to ground the gallivanting, Grand Guignol ghastliness that surrounds them both.

Keeping expectations low and perhaps maintaining one's blood alcohol levels somewhat higher than usual, I am fairly certain that any seriously warped, morbidly muesli masticating, B-Movie masochist will no doubt boggle most appreciatively at director Andy Thompson's Chegg-winning 'Kill Keith', an audacious, achingly asinine, TV Star Slaying spoof, wherein the films entirely ludicrous conceit is forcibly stretched to breaking point and far beyond all shred of cogency, but, frankly, it is the single-minded unwillingness of the filmmakers to dilute their gloriously absurd vision with an iota of credibility that finally won me over, and national treasure Joe Pasquale's rigorous cameo effortlessly steals the show!

Kill Keith is the directorial debut from Andy Thompson. It isn't a big budget blockbuster, and its creators are well aware of this, they don't try to push the film beyond its financial limits and the result is a crisp, well polished production.

Kill Keith is a slasher/horror comedy, and besides a few cheap, cringe worthy jokes, the humour is lighthearted and clever. The facetious, cheesy dialogue walks a thin line but is delivered flawlessly by the main cast. The celebrities in the film, which are well known UK presenters, including Joe Pasquale, Russell Grant, Tony Blackburn and of course, Keith Chegwin, all gave surprisingly good performances and played their parts for free. Watch out for Brian 'The Vampire' Stokes (Stephen Chance) who is brilliantly funny throughout the film.

This movie isn't going to be for everyone. The scripting around Tony Blackburn's alter ego is not as strong and doesn't have the witty edge of the other characters. Also, at times, it drags slightly, it's easy to forget that people are getting killed due to the heavy focus on the romantic comedy between Danny and Dawn. However, overall the film is an enjoyable watch, and its fun.

Well first off not being from the UK I didn't recognize most of their actual real life celebrities that were used in the film so I had a sort of outsider view to it. As usual whenever I see a comedy horror title I'm definitely watching it no matter what the subject manner is. It's a good lazy afternoon film with a few moments of great humor and of coarse with it's low budget a good helping of cheese. One thing to NOT expect is a lot of bloody violence as it delves into the romcom area for 3/4 of the way but even with that said it still manages to entertain the viewer for a good bit of the run time due to the over the top characters and the total and complete lack of seriousness. This won't be winning any awards but like I mentioned before It's not a bad way to burn 90 minutes when your schedule is empty and you're just sitting around. The main character Danny isn't a bad chap to watch bungling around & it was amusing to see his little romantic crush with the female anchor Dawn develop throughout the film. Also I didn't check the time remaining so it can't be that horrible for a viewer to sit through. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it but at the same time I don't condemn it either so I'll give it a 6/10 what the hell,right.