Sadly Over-hyped

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Paul Potts' story grabbed the nations imagination as he went from Carphone Warehouse manager to opera singing sensation via Britain's Got Talent. And this film shows all of that and so much more of his story.It gets a bit bogged down by trying to be a 'Working Title/Richard Curtis' film, what with the funny mum, idiot best friend etc, but actually this is a good film, that probably deserved to do better at the box office. Perhaps it didn't travel well around the world.James Corden gives a good performance, but I found myself being more amazed by that of Alexandra Roach, who turns a potentially one note character into something far more. It's as much her film as it is Corden's.There are some slower moments in the second half, but all in all I'd recommend this film for people who think they know Paul's story, and those that don't.

To be fair to the film, they got the Pol Pot jokes out of the way early on in the movie. The rest of the film is a wannabe, quirky, humorous, rags to riches feel good film with every cliché thrown at it.Personally I think James Corden is a decent enough actor and he has proved that on stage several times such as The History Boys. However he has his detractors who cannot get over his comedy roles or just because he is fat or laddish in behaviour.Based loosely true events Corden plays Paul Potts a mobile phone salesman who has always loved opera. He has been bullied since he was young, shy, gawky, overweight and always seems to be down on his luck and could never get that big break. Even his father seems to be embarrassed by him.In reality Paul Potts was an elected Lib Dem councillor for several years, his siblings have been ignored in the film and he sang in several Opera productions on his way to the big time.We see Potts save money to go to an opera school in Venice, he auditions in front of Pavarotti but gets too nervous. He falls in love with a girl he met through the internet but every time something good happens bad luck gets in his way such as a burst appendix or a bike accident. That is until he wins Britain's got Talent.Its a film that is aimed at the audience who enjoyed his performance in the talent show, voted for him and purchased his album. I have no idea how good of an opera singer he really is. These days the Classical charts are full of what I term Karaoke opera singers who sing snippets of popular opera tunes, you know the bits even philistines like me would recognise such as 'Just one Cornetto' or is it 'O sole mio?'The film produced by Simon Cowell's production company with product placement by Carphone Warehouse is heavily manipulative and contrived just like some of Cowell's shows.I found the film to be tedious, unoriginal and unfunny. The cast do their best with a poor script, Corden is charming enough more to with his skills as an actor than the actual cookie cutter screenplay itself.

Well I have to say that I am very surprised that I see almost only positive reviews when this movie is pretty mediocre. Okay it might be a biography of Paul Potts but still when your life is dull and boring you can't expect the movie to be anything else then that. I normally do like James Corden as a comedian but here I didn't laugh once. Classifying One Chance as a comedy is just a farce. They should classify it as a musical because that's almost 60% of the movie. Endless annoying opera singing, and not even that good. I couldn't wait until he finally won Britains Got Talent so that this movie finally ended. I guess if you are friends or if you are related to Paul Potts you might like this movie but otherwise there are loads of better movies then this one. Boring from beginning till the end.

This is such an uplifting movie with so much heart and love. It may be somewhat of an old story of a young man who was bullied by other children when he was young, had an intense love of opera that was opposed by his father and nurtured by his mother, who falls in love and continues his efforts to become professional despite so many odds against him. It was so enriching to see his friends stick by him and his wife totally supporting his dream. His humility is beautiful and his winning the top prize in Britain's Got Talent brings one to joyous tears: Excellent script and good acting in this wonderful true story of a talented, good human being.