Lucky Break

Lucky break is stupid. In fact, so stupid it's reasonably laughable. But it's also entertaining. Very entertaining. Filled with great comic sketches, as well as heart-touching moments, this film is definitely worth £3.50 and a bag of extra-large popcorn.

Starting off, two men are arrested, and put into jail, which they find very uncomfortable. They want out. So they hatch a ludicrous scheme that just couldn't work...or could it? Some good acting (espcially by Timothy Spall) leads this film well on it's way to the thumbs up. Funny, touching and hugely, hugely enjoyable, Lucky break should be just the antidote to a long, stressful day.

Overall: **** out of ***** (4 out of 5)

It was probably made to capitalize on the well-deserved success of the "Full Monty" :both films have a lot in common ;proles / prisoners setting a show up.

The major drawback is Christopher Plummer's part :it's really underwritten and the scenarists obviously favored James Nesbitt's role.Too bad for the "show " sequences are the best in the whole film but we do not laugh enough.Lord Nelson's and "that" Lady Hamilton's song is deliciously stupid and provides a great moment of fun.The inmates ironically singing "we're going home" is a hilarious scene too.

But it seems that the director could not make up his mind :he hesitates between comedy and drama:the sadistic warden is a cliché ,as old as the hills in what is finally a prison movie.

Watchable but the screenplay was not fully exploited.

I don't know, maybe I'm the only person in the world who didn't enjoy The Full Monty. Perhaps there's something wrong with me, but I hated it. So when I was dragged into the cinema to see this follow-up by the same director, I went kicking and screaming. True, I knew absolutely nothing about the film, had not seen a review and sure, it starred the always funny James "Cold Feet" Nesbitt and the delectable Olivia "Rushmore" Williams, but I was determined to loathe every agonising moment.

A few minutes in, a funny things started to happen. Something odd was happening in my throat and in my chest. That sensation in my chest... that strange feeling... What was it? No, I wasn't bringing up bile. It wasn't pain; It was... it was... No, it couldn't be. It was laughter! Yes, I was laughing. The film was funny and entertaining and charming and the corny, feel good ending left me with a warn glow.

Eewwww...

Please stop comparing this film to The Full Monty. The comparison is irrelevant. It is not, and never intends to be, a sequel to Monty.

Please do have a look at this film as it is, actually, very good, with some well observed and interesting performances. Some reviews on here give the impression the film is unfunny. Not so. It works well as a light comedy/romance.

Worth seeing too as an example of good British cinema. I wonder what Hollywood would have done with the script..? (On second thought... Let's not go there).

Well done (again) Film Four.

Repeat-offender Jimmy (James Nesbitt) finds himself doing time after a botched bank job. When the prison warden (Christopher Plummer), an aspiring playwright, proposes that the prison put on a production of his musical, Jimmy and his fellow inmates plan to use the performance as a diversion while they make a get away. Things get complicated, however, when Jimmy falls for the prison's psychologist, Annabel (Olivia Williams). This entertaining black comedy carries some good acting and a marvelously understated sense of humor. The warden's musical, based on the swashbuckling life of Viscount Horatio Nelson, is about as lavish as an elementary school production, and wonderfully dreadful to boot. Although a bit slow at times, patient viewers will find themselves rewarded.