All the Queen's Men

This German-Austrian-Hungarian-USA co-production was directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and stars Matt Leblanc. The premise was that British and American agents during the Second World War tried to infiltrate the espionage mechanism in Berlin by disguising themselves in drag, in order to steal a precious Enigma encoding and decoding machine from an all-female factory. That was plausible enough (the image of Leblanc in a frumpy "German lady" dress aside), but I didn't hold much hopes of coming out of the movie satisfied. Well, I was disappointed, but in a good way. This is a breezy, entertaining, light-hearted action flick. How could one not like Udo Kier as a perverted Nazi general? How could one not love Eddie Izzard as the British drag queen who teaches his team the ropes of hair, makeup, and frocks?

Izzard, mostly known as a standup comedian, turned in a bravura performance, starting out with a hilarious rendition of Marlene, and ending with deceptively spirited performance of imperialist German favorites, which completely fooled and kept Izzard's Nazi audience enrapt while the espionage mission climaxed, literally right behind the stage curtains.

This film seems to have been made for American tastes, judging by how much of the humor content is directed toward stereotypes of British fuddy-duddiness and arrogance. It also suffers from a few plot implausibilities. The sixtyish Archie (played by veteran British character actor, James Cosmo) is a beefy, mustachioed walrus of a man who, even after shaving his face, couldn't pass for a woman plausibly no matter if he was all dowdied up in a head scarf and a charwoman's dress. Polyglot math genius Johnno Johnson--played by David Birkin, who some of you might recognize from his role as a "young" Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek:TNG episode where a handful of Enterprise crew are suddenly turned into twelve-year-olds--was sent off on this mission instead of being kept on home turf, where his linguistic and cryptographic abilities would be much more valuable. And finally, the escape sequence at the end requires suspension of disbelief, quite literally.

Still, these flaws seem minor when compared to the overall entertainment value of the movie. Izzard's performance as a whole, Cosmo's endearing takes as a "grandmother" to a German war orphan, and Leblanc's hilarious seduction of Kier highlight an overall very enjoyable 105 minutes.

Brilliant I had bought this off HMV and after reading so many reviews I was expecting an awful movie but to my surprise it is brilliant. Eddie Izzard is fantastic in this movie. His relationship with Franz is brilliant you can sort of feel a connection. Matt LeBlanc is not too bad in this movie but I believe he could of done a much better job. David Birkin is fantastic. He really suited his character and portrayed him extremely well. Most of the reviews are comparing this movie to "Privates on parade" which is stupid. Privates on parade is an awful movie. I watch it as John Clesse was in it but he hardly said anything. This movie is nothing like Privates on Parade this movie is fantastic. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is an Eddie Izzard fan. His character in this movie is brilliant.

With Matt LeBlanc in the title role, I'm afraid that I feared the worst as there is certainly a compelling reason for him not appearing in many feature films; one can certainly point a camera at him, but I can't understand why someone would point a microphone at him.

However, his supporting cast certainly props him up well. Eddie Izzard in particular. And Nicolette Krebitz is certainly a delight to look at and someone who seems to be able to act.

In general, this film can't decide what it is. Comedy? Drama? Espionage? There's certainly not a lot of comedy outside of the guys wearing dresses. Then again, Berlin in the dying days of WW2 probably wasn't a whole lot of laughs.

The voice-over/explanation before the film even begins is worthless and should be deleted from all future prints. Yet while the producers seem to want to force this down our throats, they wouldn't spring for sub-titles during the German portions of the film.

The writing is nothing to salute and from people with less-than-noteworthy careers. The directing by Ruzowitzky is noteworthy only in it's lack of noteworthiness. Pretty static and boring.

Not a film to run screaming from, but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out, either.

Even as an Eddie Izzard and Matt LeBlanc fan this film endures a few hardships in providing a really great war-drama-comedy. Even from the outset you can tell this isn't a major motion picture, (and the fact i brought it for £1 brand new from a national chain store backs that up). Despite this, the acting cast do a good job, with a few recognisable faces making well acted appearances. But the big problem comes with LeBlanc, because his appeal is primarily to an American audience and fans of 'Friends', and of course, he isn't playing Joey. The lack of subtitles for the German dialogue also didn't help for people like me who don't have an excellent grasp on the language, and this film features quite a lot of foreign dialogue. Nether-the-less the film does deliver something quite different, and funny in times, so isn't a total drag. Its worth a watch, maybe when you've got a couple of hours to spare, just like i did today!

I've been an Eddie Izzard fan for quite a long time (As has the friend I watched this film with) and we approached it from that stand point. In fact as we picked it we couldn't help but recite "it's the 131st transvestite brigade, parachuting behind enemy line with fabulous make-up and a fabulous gun." Taking it as that style of campy send up of war we found it rather funny, of course it was cheesy and full of plot holes, but that was part of the appeal. "I have to get my mousy-kins!" I mean if this film wasn't laughing at itself it should have been. Yes Eddie turns in a brilliant performance from an emotional stand point as well, as does David Birkin, but their performances add to the humour not over shadow it. Yes from the stand point of making the world a better place this film did not accomplish a single blow for understanding, but not everything has to be a statement for the cause. Some things are allowed to be funny for humour's sake, and those of us who get that the stereotypically wooden characters are there to make a point find them all the more funny. Give it a try.