Sex Lives of the Potato Men

Watching Sex Lives of the Potato Men is kind of like consuming 12 pints of lager, watching The Word, eating a cold pizza, abusing yourself to Page 3 and waking up in a puddle of your own sick. You know you shouldn't enjoy it. You should be deeply ashamed. But somehow you can't help but look back and grin.

There's no doubt about it. Sex Lives of the Potato Men is badly written, poorly directed and does nothing to further British cinema, but if quality were determined by how many knob and fanny jokes you could squeeze into 80 minutes, it would rival Citizen Kane. And I guess that's what the film comes down to. Have you got a dirty, sleazy, sordid, twisted, juvenile sense of humour? I have, and that's why I found it funny.

Picking the most tasteless joke is kind of like deciding who the world's most evil dictator is, but I'd have to go for the phone call where one character is using a porn chat line while eating strawberry and fish paste sandwiches (don't ask) and it's revealed that Johnny Vegas is sitting next to him having his breakfast. It's disgusting, it's crude but it's also very funny. As is the scene where a man is taped to the ceiling while watching his wife. Then there are the group sex scenes where Vegas is more interested in the parking and fixing the bed. The whole film has a very dysfunctional attitude to sex, one that is very British. Here sex isn't meant to be enjoyed and it isn't about love. It's just done so that you can brag to your mates as you're downing your 15th pint of lager. It's recreation. In fact, the whole film plays up the male fear of relationships. Men don't want to be nagged and they don't want to feel suffocated. They just want to have lots of sex with lots of different women.

I think that part of the reason that Sex Lives of the Potato Men got such vitriolic reviews was because of how unattractive and desperate the characters are. This skinny guy and this fat bloke will do anything for sex. Anything. But although some of the escapades in the film are outlandish, the desperation isn't too far from the truth. Men will literally debase themselves in the worst way for a little bit of action. We have no shame and no standards. We'll sell our mothers and soil our good names for ten minutes with a woman, even if it's completely joyless. That's just the way we are. But although this doesn't provide one with a warm, cosy feeling, and while it shows people at their worst, I can't help but find it funny. Sad, pathetic, sex-obsessed men are amusing.

But actually, it's not just the men who are sad and perverted. The women here are just as desperate, just as debased and just as filthy. You've got randy mother-in-laws, amorous grannies and a chip shop girl who likes to watch men scrubbing floors. According to Sex Lives of the Potato Men, we're all hopelessly kinky. But that's another reason why I kind of like it. It makes me feel normal and well adjusted. Far from making me feel bad by showing a film with muscled hunks and unattainably gorgeous women, it makes me feel good by showing people that are even beneath me.

However, this isn't to say that the film is a work of comedy genius. The filmmakers' idea of subtlety is having 69 on the front door of a house and calling a fish and chip shop 'Fishy Fingers'. But because I'm a person that is highly amused by everything scatological, sexual and that which could be deemed bad taste, there were more than enough laughs for me. I mean, yeah, it's kind of like Viz with the wit and the intelligence removed, but those knob and fanny jokes come thick and fast. And besides, personally, I find Sex Lives of the Potato Men a million times less offensive than dross like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary. Yes Sex Lives may be like a tawdry tabloid that stains your skin, but at least it's a relatively honest depiction of life in Britain.

This film has been treated most unfairly.

If the message of the film was 'these men are always lusting after and getting sex-isn't that great!', then I would agree with the comments about it being 'for morons' as one reviewer put it.

However, these men are losers. They lust after sex, and it always goes wrong. There is no titillation involved. We are not encouraged to see them as some kind of super-studs that young lads would want to emulate.

We are not laughing about sex or bodily functions, we are laughing about the ridiculous image that sex has in the media, where everyone is young, fit and beautiful, they all have orgasms every time and everyone is 'at it' day and night with no ill effects.

I find it amusing that the reviewers that work for the media which promote the fake views of sex, have failed to see the point here.

I must add here that it is a credit to the film-makers that they never stooped to nudity in the film. All too often we are presented with naked women in films for no apparent reason. Here it would have been more justified, but the film-makers have realised that the audience has an imagination-we don't need to watch the group sex to know that it is there etc.

Overall I found this film to be extremely funny. There was no embarrassment in the audience with people feeling free to guffaw at any joke they found amusing, even if they were the only one that got it.

If I were to suggest any problems with the film, I would say that some of the Tolly storyline went a bit far-I was most concerned when he brought the octopus home, for example.

However it will be a long time before the image of Tolly enjoying his sandwich, whilst Johnny Vegas is trying to eat his cereal will leave my head.

Final verdict Crude, but not gratuitous. Hilariously funny. Misunderstood. Not for granny.

All I expect from a comedy is that it's funny and that's what this film is. Funny.

OK, so ideally in addition there would have been some emotional resonance to counter and complement the comedy and the character arcs wouldn't just, sort of, limp to a hasty conclusion but I laughed throughout and so maybe that's being too picky.

People have compared this to the Carry On films and I hope Humphries is suitably horrified rather than flattered. The Carry On films severely lacked the depth, honesty and courage that Sex Lives of the Potato Men displays. I'd go as far to say Sex Lives of the Potato Men is a spot-on satire on recreational sex and the mores of the new millennium; where the seeking of new experiences is deemed more important than true intimacy and relationships.

It is bizarre that by simply holding a mirror up and reflecting our society as it exists, Humphries has been villified in the media.

I would strongly advise not to let middle-class metropolitan reviewers or the sexphobic moral minority or jealous bitter would-be film-makers put you off, see it for yourself and make your own mind up.

Now i like Johnny Vegas which is a good start, I also enjoy toilet humour

Such as Young Ones and Bottom etc. This however failed to bring even a

small smile to my face. The story follows Johnny around after his wife

chucks him out (how he got his good looking wife and kid i dont know)

as he attempts to shag anything that moves. Failing normally. I was looking forward to this but found it to be totally boring and a waste

of my time altogether. Unless you are stuck for something to do for 90 mins apart from wash the car then dont bother.....

Dave and Ferris are mates who work in Birmingham delivering potatoes to trade. However their passion for their work doesn't compare to their desire for regular sex. Having just split up from his wife, Dave sees the future of being knee deep in the stuff if he can only work out who to get with. Ferris has a different problem as staying with his mother-in-law rent free means that he has to provide a service to her without making a fuss. Meanwhile their boss struggles with unrequited love for Ruth and colleague Tolly has strange tastes left over from his previous relationship.

I decided to try this film out of curiosity because of how universally reviled it was when it came out in the UK. It seems from the IMDb rating that the film has found some affection from somewhere but generally it is still very poor. The sense of humour required is low and the script seems rammed with unfunny jokes that seem to lack any taste or decency. Some people will find it hilarious perhaps but generally the best I could say about the "best" bits of the film is that they didn't sicken me. Sadly I cannot say that about the worst bits of the film and occasionally I did look away from the screen in disgust. I did this when the material was particularly coarse or the images were just tasteless. So although I didn't find it totally repulsive I didn't find anything of value here.

Writer director Humphries reacted with shock at the response the film got, saying he was trying to make a genuine account of the lives of people you don't see on film having sex however his problem is that he may have partially succeeded because the dregs of society aren't pretty. Of course he only uses these character to make loads of crap sex jokes and he hasn't exactly done anything with the characters that would allow him to hide behind some sort of bigger aim. The cast are mostly poor because the material is so bad for them. Vegas is good at what he does but the material doesn't work for his strengths and he is mostly unfunny – fans of his will get more from his recent PG Tips adverts with "monkey". Crook is no good at all and just stands round stiffly during all the rubbish he has to say. Gatiss and Coleman have unfunny material and can do nothing to improve it. Davis is wasted and the only appearance I found funny was Nick Holder in a weirdly amusing turn.

Overall then a film that is crude and unfunny to the point of being almost totally unenjoyable. Even the occasional moment that showed invention or wit (eg the Broadway style moment at the swingers party) is rendered awful by being so heavily crude. Containing nothing to really laugh about and plenty of low shots that still don't hit any target, this is a fairly pointless and laugh-free affair that will barely appeal to drunk teenage boys, far less anyone else.