Just what I expected

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Everyone knows Billy Connelly is funny and you can almost guarantee a laugh watching any movie he is in, similarly you can say it for most movies Ben Miller is in. Well that is my opinion anyway.Well forget that those two are in this one and watch this for the three funniest characters you will probably ever watch. They are all 10 years old or younger.I laughed so much in this movie and just loved it to bits.Watch it if you get the chance, absolutely hillarious.

What We Did On Our Holiday is one of those "dysfunctional" family films, the positive ending of which can be spotted in the first half hour. The film, by a pair of Brit sitcom writer/directors, has garnered some positive reviews and I'm a fan of David Tennant - I just saw him in Don Juan in Soho when I was in London - but I found most of the characters here just irritating, especially the trio of precocious and potentially neurotic kids who never seem to have heard the word "no."The plot does indeed chronicle the London family's Scotland holiday to visit the husband's brother and father. A running gag is the attempt to keep the couple's upcoming divorce hush-hush. But of course the kids are not good at keeping secrets of any kind, or at keeping their mouths shut at all.Additional complications involve the feisty, free spirited grandfather who is in the last stages of cancer. Then, as one of the reviews noted, "it gets weird." Part of the weirdness arises from the son's obsession with Vikings and from his watching the historical epic, The Vikings, on TV. (It might be noted that this film raised the bar for graphic violence in mainstream films in 1958. There is even an in-joke when a bit from the musical score, the Viking horn call, is quoted).Finally the kids come up with an unusual way to deal with the grandfather's death, a solution which one would think might have serious legal consequences (which are briefly raised but finally just dismissed). But certainly the groundwork for years of therapy and analysis has been laid, issues which are blithely ignored in the final cheery conclusion set to feel-good blue grass music.A sequel dealing with the characters years down the line might prove more interesting than this weird-ed-out Holiday.

What We Did on Our Holiday is written and directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. It stars Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Amelia Bullmore, Emilia Jones, Bobby Smalldridge, Harriet Turnbull and Celia Imrie. Music is by Alex Heffes and cinematography by Martin Hawkins."The truth is, every human being on this planet is ridiculous in their own way. So we shouldn't judge, we shouldn't fight, because in the end... in the end, none of it matters. None of the stuff"Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin spin off from their hugely popular sit-com, Outnumbered, to produce this funny, philosophical and moving picture. Tennant and Pike play parents of three young children, they are pending a divorce, but with Doug's (Tennant) father, Gordie (Connolly), dying of cancer, the family head to Scotland for what will surely be his last birthday party. Hoping to put on a united front so as to not upset Gordie any further, nobody could envisage what was to happen next...It's a film that some no doubt find easy to kick, such is the uncomplicated structure used, and the formula of messaging that drives it forward. Yet sometimes uncomplicated is all you need, and in this day and age of mega-buck blockbusters and soulless frat type comedies grasping at sex for laughs, this is a film of refreshing qualities. It's superbly performed by what is a top notch group of adult British actors, who in turn are supplemented by three child actors so natural and engaging it makes you wonder if acting school is really needed?It's obviously a piece that will resonate more with those who have been touched/stung by the thematics at work, while the comedy ticking away - with some truly great lines uttered - could seem a bit off kilter for the unprepared, but hopefully more will watch it, laugh and cry and ultimately realise that life really is too short for, well, you get the picture I'm sure. 8/10

From the makers of the sit com Outnumbered comes this odd mix. David Tennant and Rosamund Pike are Doug and Abi going through a rough patch in their marriage which is on the verge of splitting up. They head off to Scotland with their three children, Lottie, Mickey and Jess to celebrate what could be their grandfather's (Doug's dad,) Gordie last birthday as he is ill with cancer. The couple want to maintain an appearance of happy families for Gordie, the kids though let slip various difficulties their parents are having.However as the preparations for the party are taking place Gordie dies during a trip to the beach with the children. The kids knowing that all the grown ups just argue decide to give him a Viking funeral that grandad had earlier talked about which causes consternation to the adults when they later find out.It is a film of two halves. The first part is about dysfunctional families as when we get to Scotland, Doug's brother, a social climber also has problems at home with his wife and son who feel repressed by him. The emphasis on the children who react to the behaviour of the adults around them gives the film a different spin. The second half with the resultant media scrum changes the direction of the film and it just got silly. By that point it ceased to be an observational comedy and not even a drama.For a film that starts brightly, it takes a left turn which leads to disappointing results even though by the end the adults seemed to have worked through their problems.