Les Patterson Saves the World

1987
R
1h 38m

IMDb RATING

4.8/10

384

YOUR RATING

Play clip2:56

Watch Les Patterson Saves The World: Sobering Up

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11 Photos

Satire Slapstick Comedy

A boozy Australian diplomat's disastrous UN appearance lands him in the Middle East, where he stumbles into a KGB bioweapon. With help from Dame Edna, this perpetually drunk mess might accid... Read allA boozy Australian diplomat's disastrous UN appearance lands him in the Middle East, where he stumbles into a KGB bioweapon. With help from Dame Edna, this perpetually drunk mess might accidentally become the world's unlikeliest hero.A boozy Australian diplomat's disastrous UN appearance lands him in the Middle East, where he stumbles into a KGB bioweapon. With help from Dame Edna, this perpetually drunk mess might accidentally become the world's unlikeliest hero.

Director
- George Miller
Writers
- Barry Humphries
- Diane Millstead
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.8/10

384

YOUR RATING

Director
- George Miller
Writers
- Barry Humphries
- Diane Millstead
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Clip 2:56

Les Patterson Saves The World: Sobering Up

Photos10

User reviews21

4.8384

Featured reviews

6otis-bogle

Creaky plot, not enough Sir Les - but still worth watching

Doctor Sir Leslie Colin Patterson KBE is one of the greatest comedy creations ever. Barry Humphries only rarely gives him an outing so it is a shame that this film is so average (or should that be everage ?). Perhaps he hoped for a greater appeal by including Dame Edna Everage but 'she' gets too much time. Nevertheless, this 'fillum' is still a very funny in places and is a must for all admirers of Sir Les.

Anyone who wants to see this character in full flow should track down the video or soundtrack of "Les Patterson has a stand-up" which was a live show in London in 1997. In 1985 Sir Les also wrote the funniest book ever - it's called "The Traveller's Tool".

l_wood

For Collectors / Fans Only

I note with interest that one reviewer, Kmce, mentioned that this film was withdrawn shortly after release - this should make it all the more a collector's item and I'm glad I have a copy. Les Patterson is another fantastic satirical creation from Barry Humphries and fans will get plenty of him in this 98 minute movie. However, it appears that it was too ambitious of Humphries to make a Feature based on this character as the script needed radical reworking or rejection. Not that the individual gags aren't funny, because they are. In fact two years after the film when Humphries was back on stage, Sir Les Patterson made a reappearance as a 20 minute performance at the start of each show and was hilarious. This was released on video in the UK - as was the film - but they are probably both unavailable now. Us collectors must act fast!

8daryl-cheshire

I liked it

What I liked,

The fart scene at the beginning, and the headlines "Big Flareup at UN" or "Big Stink"

The typical suburb which had kangaroos, emus and wombats and other wildlife wandering around the streets. Apparently a common misconception by tourists

The official embassy car was a stretched FJ Holden with the Australian Coat of Arms on the side.

The OzCharge credit card which said: "Charge to: The Australian Taxpayer"

Paul Jennings who impersonates the PM Bob Hawke was saying "aww cripes" when dealing with Sir Les Patterson and sends him to an obscure country

stephmcd

This should probably be in the "trivia" bit, but I can't find how to get there...

The scene in the revolving restaurant of the Sydney Tower comes a full ten years after The Goodies did it in the "Alternative Roots" episode (1977). Graeme Tim and Bill (in their ancestral guises of Celtic Kilty, County Cutie and Kinda Kinky) have been kidnapped by an unscrupulous tour leader who is taking them on a whirlwind tourist tour of London. He forces them up to the revolving restaurant of the Post Office tower (the same one that Twinkle the giant kitten famously toppled). The restaurant spins faster and faster until all the diners are stuck to the windows via centrifugal force. This scene is of course considerably shorter and less expensive than the one set in the Sydney Tower in Les Patterson Saves the World, but no doubt both sequences derive from a universal and visceral mistrust of revolving restaurants.

9The_Great_Cornholio

Classic Patterson!

Perhaps not our finest export, but definitely an 80s export, and ranking just ahead of Beavis and Butthead do America as my favorite dirty, gross-out movie of all time. This film is a rare little gem for all Patterson/Humphries fans, a must-have in the video cabinet of any collector. Humphries, true to his style, plays Australian diplomat and head of the Australian Cheese Board Sir Leslie Colin Patterson as well as the inimitable Dame Edna Everage, British Megastar. Involved is a plot to assassinate Sir Les, unleash a grotesque social disease with an even more grotesque name on the West by a Russian agent, and a coup in a financially and strategically important Middle Eastern country. Add Joan Rivers as the US President and you have the makings of a cult classic. But you need to be in the right mood! (Remember, Valium isn't a drug, it's a food, in tablet form!) I enjoyed the locations, filmed on location in Morocco and New York, giving the film an international feel even if it wasn't appreciated overseas. I guess you need to know Sir Les to appreciate this film, and likewise you have to like Sir Les to like it too.

Trivia
Barry Humphries admits that he is embarrassed by this film.

Quotes
Les Patterson: Hey, Nev, where were you when the shit hit the fan, dickhead?

Crazy credits
Dame Edna Everage and Dr. Sir Leslie Patterson appear by arrangement with the Barry Humphries Life Enhancement Facility.

Alternate versions
A comparison between the DVDs published in the U.K. (2004) and in Germany (2011) shows different endings, apparently the Australian/worldwide Edition and a special version for the USA. The worldwide Edition ends with Sir Les Patterson getting awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. After an eulogy has been held in his favor, Sir Les, drunk like a skunk, staggers to the speaker's platform, looses some pages of his speech, bows down and farts, somebody is lighting up a cigarette and the whole story ends like is had begun. In the U.S. version, a reception is held for Sir Les by Mrs. President at the White House. Surrounded by her guests, she praises her interior designer for redecorating her domicile. Than she excuses herself for seeing the lavatories. Meanwhile the gay designer boasts of his idea of having colored the Blue Salon all in pink and that even appropriate toilet seats have installed at the lavatories this very morning. Getting suspicious about the seats being contaminated, Sir Les rushes into the ladies and comes back with a bewildered, but happy Mrs. President on his arms and the invited crowd applauds.