Reviews

This is a great movie on so many levels. It has the suspense and menace of 'Jaws', complete with the standard (and by now cliché'd) elements of every 'monster menace' movie. No-one believes Jake Cullen when he says there's a huge boar in the outback and it ate his grandson - and then it strikes again. Meanwhile, other elements in town have their own reasons for wanting the menace kept quiet.

With my hand on my heart, I can't decide whether this is meant to be a parody or a serious take on the genre. With the principal villain being a HUGE wild boar, the film's on wobbly ground. With the secondary villains being two opal-mining brothers whose parents must have been cousins, it's getting worse. But then it's not played for laughs. Bill Kerr puts in a great performance as the 'hunter with a grudge', and the gorgeous Arkie Whitely (RIP) takes on the mantle of 'believing but powerless sidekick' so well. The hero comes to a strange town to find out what happened to his wife, only to find there's more going on than meets the eye. It has everything you'd expect - there's even a dog sent for aid when a character is helpless.

The problem with dismissing it out of hand is that - for some reason - it's a good movie. There's some great pieces of dialogue: when the Baker brothers fall out over maiming another character, one complains 'You never want to do anything fun'; Jake Cullen is obsessively absolute about his foe - 'dangerous or dead'. The razorback is well portrayed for its time - don't forget this movie's 20 years old. It squeals and roars and, well, eats people. Oh, and destroys houses.

All in all, this film is a gem. Admittedly it won't do for pigs what 'Jaws' did for sharks, but it is a classic of the genre.

The film was apparently spawned from an idea one of the writers had when he 'saw' one of his creations in a supermarket. The inhabitants of Royston Vasey head into 'our' world to persuade the writers not to stop writing about them and thus destroy their world.

If that sounds a bit too serious, don't be put off. Within the first few minutes we get: Bernice (the vile female vicar) letting rip at an unfortunate penitent during confession; Chinnery (the vet who inadvertently destroys every animal he touches) attempting to collect semen from a giraffe; Mickey (thick beyond belief) being, ah, thick; and Tubbs (inbred sister-wife and local shopkeeper) being sweet as ever - but still disgusting.

Some of the regular characters are missing, but a new idea by the Gents introduces some 16th-Century characters - and we have the Gents themselves in the action too. If you're new to The League of Gentlemen, this is an easy introduction and a lot of fun. If you're a long-standing fan, this has everything you've come to expect - including the joys of Jeremy Dyson spotting.

All told, it's got the same faintly surreal humour that's the hallmark of the series, plus some moments of quite touching 'introspection'. Herr Lipp, for example, maintains a gentle dignity on learning that he's regarded by his creators as a 'one-joke character'. While most of the characters stay as they are, some develop in unexpected ways that are perfectly natural when they happen.

This film is a 'swan song' for Royston Vasey, but it's also a showcase for the Gents who prove that (gasp!) they can write other stuff - and it can be very funny. (But you knew that anyway.)