Greed

What kind of film is this supposed to be? A comedy? A polemic? A social satire? An expose? It seems to be trying to be all of these simultaneously - and the result is something of a mess.

Steve Coogan is good as a loathsome tycoon who doesn't care who he tramples underfoot as he amasses his fortune. David Mitchell is also good as his bumbling would-be biographer; and the preparations for Coogan's hedonistic birthday bash contain some fine comedy.

But the film also wants to condemn the way the fashion industry is built on the exploitation of workers in Sri Lanka and elsewhere (and everyone who has ever bought clothes in their local High St is complicit in this exploitation). This is a theme worthy of treatment, but to attempt to splice it with the comedic strand of the film jars dreadfully.

The plight of refugees crossing the Mediterranean is also touched upon. Again, this is something we should all be concerned about, but it can hardly be blamed on retail fashion moguls - so why try to shoehorn it into this film?

And as if there wasn't too much in the film already, we also get the filming of some sort of reality TV programme, the relationship of which to the main plot is far from clear.

They say that less is more. In the case of this film, more is less.

Steve Coogan gives a great performance as ever, but the rest of the film didn't quite hold it together.

The message Winterbottom was trying to engage the audience with became too preachy, particularly the end montage of statistics aimed at shaming the fashion industry and its use of sweatshop labour. This was wholly unnecessary as the story made this point without this tacked on piece of activism.

The CGI lion was also disappointing, as was the general direction of the story, and many of the characters felt under-developed and derivative.

It was all a bit too obvious, and very simplistic in its outlook.

We all know that the very wealthy and powerful mostly made that wealth through ruthlessness, this is an old, tired narrative now.

It's a pity that this ends with a slide-show of factoids apparently intended to give the issues raised by the film a 'men vs women' or 'third world vs first' slant. Actually, what the all-too-true-to-life story is about is money vs no money: the fact that most of it is scooped up by a few arrogant, entitled, savvy people, and the rest of us - men as much as women, west as much as east - are at their mercy. Haven't we just recently seen the way our former public water utilities have been given the Philip Green treatment by unscrupulous capitalists, 'leveraged' for billions while our rivers are choked with sewage? And similarly, there's a moment of moral clarity about how the amoral 'Green' fails to recognise the moral freight of what he does - 'in his mind, all he does is offer a price' - but the same does not extend to some 'good guy' characters whose actions are simply indefensible.

There's a pinch of amusement here, and a peck of anger, but none of it will have any effect on the Philip Greens of this world. They are too stupid and arrogant to be hurt by satire and, whatever devastation they wreak on others, they somehow always come out on top. Realising that, you can only come away depressed.

Some great performances, always great for me to watch Steve Coogan. he plays this so well. Isla Fischer is also worth a mention.

This is entertaining, funny but poignat in places. Thought provoking with a message throughout. Capitalism and the wealth divide.

Well worth a watch.

Greed is a fine film and nothing more. It is very inconsistent in quality but it is a seriously enjoyable biopic on Sir Richard McCreadie

This is one of those films which wouldn't have been as strong without its lead actor Steve Coogan. He honestly stole the show.

I feel like the film feels half baked, so it is quite noticable uneven at times in tone. The political aspect doesn't always go well the stylish comedic aspects. Although the latter works more well than the former.

I don't have anything wrong with the whole message these kind of films put out but they did it in such a dull way. The scenes preparing for the party and at the party are a lot more well done.

Overall it is pretty average and feels like this was wasted potential in in this. It's damn entertaining and a lot of fun at times but needs more substance in the political side of the film. It just feels tacky and the subplot with they refugees doesn't exactly work 100%