Reviews

Asking most of the popular UK film reviewers to give valid opinions on this film is like asking my Mum to review a Death Metal album. She couldn't be less interested or less able to judge whether it was good or not. However, watching it with a bunch of 4-10 year olds, the truth is obvious. Kids love Pudsey, they love the crude jokes, talking horses, slapstick pratfalls and the dancing. No, it's not Slumdog Millionaire, of course it isn't. I've seen it criticised for having a simple plot, for John Sessions acting like a pantomime villain (which he does brilliantly), even for relying on Pudsey's dancing skills. It's like the reviewers have lost all touch with their inner child. Almost as if they are all ...grumpy old men. Too cool to laugh at a simple fart joke. Too blinkered to see what the film is all about and most importantly, who it was made for. They are upset, indignant! Why is this film being made at all? The British film industry should be making worthy films about..social change, or drug addicts or something. A Dancing dog? Preposterous! A film like this will never score well on sites like IMDb. The target audience just don't come here. They don't spend their evenings online blogging or commenting. They are all asleep in bed. The male 12-25 year olds who do visit this page will hate the very idea of the film. There was a top 1000 voter giving it 1 star before it had even had previews.

So what is Pudsey the dog the movie? It's a fun 90 minutes to spend in the school holidays with your kids. That's all. The young (and young at heart) will love it.

Standing head and shoulders above most sports/comedy offerings, More Own Goals and Gaffs is a shining example of the genre. Rory McGrath is excellent as usual, raising the bar for comedy wigs and glasses. (If you can find a better example of locker-room -pizza -sitting comedy I will buy you a drink.) The format is simple, Rory plays a number of different roles in a series of sketches which punctuate the best collection of footballing cockups ever captured on one DVD. Rory sometimes wears a big brown coat, and walks about, with hilarious consequences. One scene has Rory and the opposing team captain 'Ivan Takikov' fighting with handbags on the pitch. This is followed by scenes of footballing mayhem with fans and players resorting to fisticuffs. Rory says things which are funny, and people watching the DVD laugh at it. That's the way it works. If you want to be someone laughing at a football/comedy/wigs/glasses DVD, then get More Own Goals And Gaffs

I got this show from an internet download (I don't live in the US. I wasn't expecting much but I really was impressed. My g/f and I loved it, even from the pilot. The main guy reminds me of Ben Stiller or Jason Lee - if you like the awkwardness of 'Meet the parents' you'll probably enjoy this show. Nice to see someone taking a few chances with sitcom, it touches on several points concerning race and disability, always getting close to the edge but without offending anyone. A nice surprise was that the supporting players are all good, esp the guy in the wheelchair. Apparently my comment didn't contain enough lines so I'll add that in one episode they used a real cat, which surprised me, normally a sitcom would use some awful puppet.