Rentadick

Armitage runs a chemical company that is on the verge of producing a gas that causes temporary disability. Clearly the military want it but it is also sought by a group of Japanese. Both Armitage and Madam Greenfly hire different people in the same detective agency to guard the gas and steal it respectively……confusion, double crosses and hilarity ensue….

I had high hopes for this…get this…it was written by Python's Chapman and Cleese, with contributions from satirists Wells and Fortune (who still works with Rory Bremner). It has a lot of famous TV faces (Sinden, Griffiths, Keith, Briers) and has involvement from Goons Milligan and Michael Bentine. With this type of quality involved I assumed that the product would be good.

But this never rises above the standard set by all 1970's British comedy which rely on bawdy farce rather than humour to get by. It has plenty of little surreal touches that make it rise slightly above the pack, but really this isn't carried across into the dialogue or plot. It even builds to a keystone cop style chase – typical of the period. None of the cast really get into it – the cameos are OK, but you can't help feel the waste.

Overall this is pretty poor. It's better than the raft of smutty 1970's comedies that this is related to, but with the talent on board you can't help feel that greater things were possible.

How one film can so woefully underuse such a great line up of actors and actresses beggars belief. A lame script laces poor and very unfunny jokes.

An all round pathetic film.

We have watched this movie twice this week and my daughter and I both think it is very funny. Ronald Fraser could not be funnier. If you didn't like this movie, try it again. Rentadick should be considered a cult classic.

This woeful 70s comedy was, believe it or not, scripted by some of the Monty Python team. Appalled at the result they removed their names from the credits leaving John Fortune to carry the blame for 'additional dialogue'. 'Rentadick' probably did seem like a good idea but somewhere along the way it went badly wrong.

Funny? No. The cast - ok, stand up Richard Briers, Donald Sinden, Ronald Fraser, James Booth, Kenneth Cope, Spike Milligan, and Richard Beckinsale. All showed a major misjudgement appearing in this rubbish. Don't waste your time - there's little to raise a smile in this pathetic movie.

This film was presented by Rank once dedicated to family films.No X certificates or suggestive fare.He must have been turning in his grave. This has to be one of the worst sex farces of the seventies.It really deserves 0/10