mtfowler

Watched the first episode of this today and was quite impressed. There are a number of reviews out there which see even the making of this series as a desecration of the grave of Leonard Rossiter, which tends to colour their opinions of the show itself. Well, I was a fan of David Nobbs original book "The Death Of Reginald Perrin" before the Rossiter series was ever made, and found that the original TV series reduced some key features (the hippo mother-in-law, CJ's "I didn't get where I am today...", Tony's "Great!!"s) to a cartoonish level. What I have seen in one episode of the 2009 version is an attempt to bypass most of the clichés of the original version, and focus on the true and timeless humour of a staid man coming apart. At first sight, it seems to me that Martin Clunes, David Nobbs and Simon Nye have worked long and hard together to produce a piece of work that will stand apart from the so-called classic. Definitely worth checking out, whether or not you have any preconceptions.

Not so much a story, as an interesting framework (family of 12 kids, done supremely well back in 1950 with a true story) upon which has been hung a combination of a few clever scenes and lots of predictable fluff.

The plot is wafer-thin, but did not distress the six under-twelves I took to see it today (not cheaper for half-a-dozen, by the way...). Us poor adults, however, especially those who actually have kids, sit there thinking "That's just dumb" as Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's characters act in a manner which would render them totally incapable of having raised even half their family without the intervention of social workers. The pathetic number of times that microphones are visible above the actors' heads just confirms your suspicion that the makers of this film couldn't be bothered to make an effort. A lot of potential was probably dumped on the floor - presumably the upscale neighbors were originally intended to play a much bigger part in the story.

Credit to Ashton Kutcher for showing that he has a good sense of comedy in one or two scenes, and even more credit to him for not taking a credit (who can blame him?).

Steve Martin has disappointed me so many times, but we all know that he can deliver the goods. For a perfect antidote to this movie check out "Parenthood" from the video store - a clever family story, whose makers actually cared about the quality of the film.