Search - Lucky Break on DVD

Under-rated entertainment.

Trevor Willsmer | 11/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We never heard of this movie, but the cover looked interesting at the video rental store. We were not disappointed. It was funny and entertaining throughout. Being big fans of community theatre, it reminded us of "Waiting for Guffman," another movie we can recommend that didn't get enough attention."

Lots to like

Jay Charles | 08/19/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I watched this because I watch anything Timothy Spall does. He has a smaller part, but is brilliant, again. Yet everyone else does a fine job a well. Frank harper demonstrates he can play the gamut, as a vicious thug whose look stops clocks. Olivia Williams gradually and reluctantly falls in love, and does so beleivably and tenderly. There are no caricatures in here, none of the cartoons that people American prison stories. Losers, bad people, and crooks are in prison, and most belong there. But they can change, can grow and can do better.Warm, funny, understated, and clever. Nice job."

Surprisingly awful

Trevor Willsmer | London, England | 06/19/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"After passing on The Full Monty in favour of Brassed Off, the now all-but defunct Film Four were quick to throw money at Peter Cattaneo's next comedy and confidently launched a huge marketing campaign for Lucky Break secure in the knowledge that they had the big local hit of the year. Subsequent excuses for the film's disastrous performance at the box-office varied from good weather putting people off going to the cinema to the revelation that the screenwriter had done time for IRA offences (subsequently overturned, but still about as endearing to the British public as Al Qaeda are to Americans). For some reason no-one mentioned the fact that it's not any good. At all.

A grab-bag of second-hand ideas from Two-Way Stretch, The Tall Guy and others, it's a laugh-free zone that goes out of its way to avoid surprises while failing to ever find its own tone, nodding to half-baked attempts realism and wildly underdeveloped comedy without ever committing to either. Even the tried-and-trusted routines don't work here: Bill Nighy is just irritating as he tries to splutter some life into unfunny dialogue while Timothy Spall does his dishevelled hamster shtick yet again, while the amateur musical used as a backdrop for the planned prison break seems simply amateurish and unfunny. Quite dreadful.
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