Jackboots on Whitehall

The credits at the end said 'Many puppets were harmed during the making of this film' which is certainly true. It's hard to describe this film, a bit like a mix of Team America (but these aren't marionettes), and a whole bunch of war films, I loved spotting the references from everything from Zulu to Apocalypse Now. There's a love story, the Hollywood style inclusion of an American, Billy Fiske, taking a main part (Tom Cruise wanted to do this in a proposed film 'The Few' about the real Billy Fiske). I loved it and gave it 8 stars, but will it be you're cup of tea? I don't know but hopefully there'll be plenty more reviews to guide you and explain this film better than me before it's released.

I can see what they were going for with this film, a knock-about pastiche of the Victor, done comically badly with tabletop dioramas and Action Men and Barbie style dolls - and right there was the first swing- and-a-miss.

With the voice cast and budget, they could and should have licensed actual Action Man. And surely the distinctive looks of the British Sindy doll would have been more apropos than Barbie.

So the stylistic tone was flat from the beginning, and then we get to the sheer woodenness of the (non) animation. Yes, I get that they're just moving dolls around, but there was no personality in the movement, nor expression in the faces. It was freakish and creepy and that jars with the comic tone that they were striving for. Rather than appearing deliberately and charmingly awful, it feels like this is the best that they could achieve, and shoddy work can only receive pity praise.

On the comic tone, strive as they might, it mostly failed. There are a few, a very few, smile (or grimace) inducing lines, but no consistency either in writing or scripting, with scenes dribbling on to no good purpose or conclusion. The pacing is also erratic, and the editing lazy. I suspect that every second of footage ended up on screen.

All in all a dire, disappointing mess that blows both the premise and the stellar cast on a dull, pointless exercise.

The glaring obviousness of the shilling in the early reviews and review- ratings doesn't do it any favours either. This is not a film that can stand on its own merits, and instead needs to rely on the kind of propaganda and suppression of which Goebbels would have been proud.

Stan Steel, i have no clue what film YOU were watching, but i for one thoroughly enjoyed this flick... Winston Churchill? As a puppet? Oh my, genius! This film can't get a 10/10 from me personally, i mean, it's no Schindler's list, or Titanic, it's not about to become an instant classic -- take it with a pinch of salt, what you get for your time is a hilarious take on WWII Britain, with a great cast of voice actors. I'm so glad this wasn't another hack at American humour. The film was well executed, admittedly the effects weren't Transformers style, but it just added to the humour of the film. Conclusion: an extremely cutesy British comedy... with puppets (:

Maybe it's because I grew up on Supermarionation but I loved this! The references to war films - and their clichés, they come thick and fast. Trying to guess who voiced which character. It also for me referenced British children's comics from the 70s, for e.g. Commando for the boys and Bunty for the girls. The animation was bad enough to be inspired. The individual characterisations made me think of the old Margaret Rutherford films. The young are all beautifully bland and everyone over 40 is a grotesque. If you want a film that evokes wet Saturday afternoons sat on the hearth rug in front of a black and white TV clutching your comic, this is it. It could have only been improved if Al Murray had been the village pub landlord!

My friends and I waited over an hour in line for tickets to this movie at the Edinburgh Film Festival as it was touted as one of the top 10 to see. The trouble was finding tickets as both screenings were sold out! The organisers added it to best of show on the last day of the festival - luckily. I absolutely loved it! Brilliant! Stan Steel how did you see the movie again in July??? EIFF ended June 26th and I was at the last screening. I know it definitely hasn't been released because I've been tracking its status online. The art direction and animation were mind-blowing! At points I even had to remind myself that these were in fact puppets! I definitely recommend seeing this whenever it's out in theatres. Tally ho!