Sadly Over-hyped

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Maybe sometimes you do need to throw subtlety out of the window and just make an honest and unpretentiously dumb movie. You, creators of Absolutely Anything, make an excellent point with your movie there. As I watched it, I often found myself thinking "This is so silly," but then wondering "is that a problem?" As far as stories for romantic comedies go, this one must have been fished out of the very bottom of the barrel. It exists only as a base for the movie's situational comedy. Half the humour comes from jokes centred around the magic wishes of Simon Pegg's character getting taken too literally. How original... The rest of the humour comes from the level of ridiculousness of the effects of each wish. The humour is therefore not high brow, but the movie is nonetheless funny, with a lot of good timing. Absolutely Anything feels less like a movie and more like a comedy sketch that has been stretched to movie length and given a budget. That budget is not giant, judging from the level of CGI effects, but big enough to get top billing actors. Simon Pegg does his Simon Pegg shtick with relative ease. Kate Beckinsale is ok, though she doesn't do much beyond providing a pretty female co-lead, who somehow looks 28 at the age of 44...must have been one of the wishes. Both leads are a bit bland. The most interesting additions to the film are Rob Riggle and Sanjeev Bhaskar. They are not funny, but their performances add colour to the movie. Robin Williams plays only a minor role, but considering that this was his last movie, there is extra value there. He isn't given anything particularly funny to say though and does not appear to have been given room to do improvisation. This movie is harmless. It is a little bland and forgettable, but it is stupid fun.

Simon Pegg plays the same character in all of his films; it was funny in Shaun of the Dead but it grew tired quickly and bizarrely he still does it. Needless to say Simon Pegg's "everyman" character is every bit as annoying as it was the last dozen or so times he played it. I found myself transfixed more on his hair transplant than his lines.The talking dog played by Robin Williams could have been done so much better. The lines the dog was given were like a cross between Dr Dolittle and What Women Want: "what if a dog could talk?! Oh I bet it would say how much it likes biscuits and wants to hump your leg!" Predictable bilge.The "chemistry" between Kate Beckinsale and Simon Pegg was strained and unbelievable. There is no way that she would like or even consider Pegg's charisma-less neighbour. We also never find out why Rob Riggle's character liked her so much or the details of how they met. Speaking of Rob Riggle, I expected more from him really.Eddie Izzard was completely bland in this. He can't act, he's not funny and he should stick to walking around in lipstick and his pink beret preaching the virtues of a "fair and equal society" while enjoying his millions like the rest of his celebrity peers.The aliens were completely unnecessary and the "Monty Python" "team" playing them were humourless too. "Monty Python" was and never will contain an ounce of humour: just tired jokes and idiotic quirkiness.The only saving grace of the film is the exploration of questions like what would happen if everyone had enough food that they wanted and a home they wanted. However, despite knowing the film was a "comedy", I found myself nitpicking for plot holes. I lost count of the number of times Pegg's dull character could've wished to improve things. On one occasion, his friend begged him to stop some woman literally worshipping him, which he could've done in a second but of course he was too busy so we were treated to more of this stretched out, unimaginative "joke".The ending was also nonsensical. Why would the aliens give anyone enough power to destroy them? Very disappointing.

Critics have said that Terry Jones' latest film is a disappointment, considering this is likely his last film. I would say the real disappointment is that with the sun setting on Terry Jones' career, the critics of our day are still as bloodthirsty, ruthless, and petty as they have always been and that he has to suffer for it. If you aren't aware, his mental condition is such that Jones no longer has the capacity for speech/communication; it's like a variation of Parkinson's - he is still in good physical health otherwise (John Cleese and Eric Idle have only recently made this public on their most recent tour together). Now I'm not saying that because of Jones' condition that they should take it easy on him; I'm saying that they've always been hypercritical and they fact that they are taking it out on a sick old man is just extra vile. Add to that what may now truly be Robin Williams' swan(dog) song and the last reunion of the 5 living Pythons on screen and we have ourselves a travesty - this film never had a chance to be welcomed as all the talents involved deserved. It's not the most unique premise, to be certain - summing it up easiest would be "a secular Bruce Almighty". Jokes and gags are clever, cheeky, and kept me chuckling throughout. Honestly, I don't know how anyone could not laugh when Simon Pegg's wishes are hilariously misinterpreted. Seriously, did I mention Simon Pegg is in this? If you are a fan, that should be enough to pique your interest and it's quite an entertaining hour and 25 minute jaunt.

Which would be the German title of the movie translated back into English. The movie being a comedy might split people as much as the title changes in Germany are splitting people up, deciding if that's genius or just plain bad. This comedy works on different levels, one of them being the actors. Kate Beckinsale and Simon Pegg are a really good match and play perfectly off each other.You have to love the physical but also the not always perfect comedy coming from them, but also the rest of the cast (the adoring running joke, sometimes literally either does it for you, or you're annoyed by it, but you can't fault the movie for backing off of it). There are weird ideas and sometimes the movie goes a bit over the top, but that's what I really liked about it too. Great execution and comedy timing too