Les Patterson Saves the World

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.

I don't know what the problem is with some of IMDb's viewers. Maybe their sense of humor is atrophied, or maybe they're just a bunch of prisses. "Les Patterson" is one of my all-time favorite comedies, and the title character, played by the comic genius Barry Humphries, is earthy, lusty, memorable, and larger than life -- laughing-out-loud funny and raunchy but also endearing and in a certain way almost inspiring, with elements of Rabelais, Falstaff, and R. Crumb. (I'm told, unaccountably, that Humphries himself is none too proud of this film today; if that's the case, I'm mystified. Maybe he hasn't seen it in a while.) Try this movie for around 15 minutes; if that doesn't convince you, well, switch it off and go watch a sitcom.

P. S. Writing this in midsummer 2022, I just watched this film for the third or fourth time. (To my surprise, it's available on YouTube.) Afterward, checking Wiki, I discovered that Humphries is now 88 years old. That's extremely depressing news; he's a unique presence, and I hate to think about losing him. However, it appears that, at least as of last spring, he's still appearing onstage -- which is cheering.

Jeez. Where do you begin? Stupid overblown(i.e. not funny) plot, appalling garish 1980s-at-its-worst set design and general art direction, a script that needs major surgery and too much Dame Edna Everage. In its favour there is so little of the wonderful Sir Les Patterson on DVD that you have to take your pleasures where you can. He is up there with Ali G as one of the most un-PC comic characters ever created. To see him say, what so much of want to actually say - but have too much common sense to say, is a non-stop treat. If you do not like Sir Les Patterson then you will be better off sticking to a bumper edition of Friends.

Sir Les Patterson as all Brits know represents Australians perfectly, well he did before they all came down with a nasty dose of PC and lost their sense of humour.

A classic movie with Sir Les and Dame Edna at their best.

A very enjoyable watch, brought a smile to my face and made me long for simpler times.

You get what you expect with this movie, don't waste your time if your expecting a Bond style action movie, a fantastic price of cinematography, you will be surly disappointed as I'm sure some who have written here have and wasted my time reading their efforts, ffs it's Barry Humphries why would you expect anything other than hilarious toilet humour. I laughed my ass off.