Went to the World Premiere of this film in Edinburgh. The event was quite exciting with a little speech by the director before the film began and Kate Mara, Billie Boyd, Robert Carlyle and Charlie Cox also at the event (and at the Gala Dinner afterwards).
The film was a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes and it was quite an enjoyable romp. But I felt unsure about what the film was aiming to be. It wasn't funny enough to call itself a comedy and some of the humour was verging on farce (especially the scenes where the characters are running around the streets of London narrowly missing each other).
It wasn't dramatic enough because the characters were on the whole cartoons and I didn't really feel involved or concerned about them - it seemed very "american formula road trip" but set in 1950s UK - nice handsome lead character, funny fat guy with a heart, pretty girl who starts off strong but ends up simply being the love interest for the lead character, and then the geeky skinny non-entity who makes good before the end. There was some tension in the scenes set in Westminster Abbey when they were trying to steel the stone - but you never really believed that they were ever going to be caught (but of course the 50s were years before mobile phones, laser burglar alarms, and burglars abseiling down from ceilings on micro wires.
From a political point of view it was pretty full on in its portrayal of the Nationalist movement - but even this didn't feel fully developed and was perhaps more of an attempt to impress Sean Connery who is a staunch advocate of Scottish Independence and was at the Premiere as well as he is Patron of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Despite these comments I did enjoy the film. I probably won't buy the DVD but I may well rent it wen it comes out.
The film was a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes and it was quite an enjoyable romp. But I felt unsure about what the film was aiming to be. It wasn't funny enough to call itself a comedy and some of the humour was verging on farce (especially the scenes where the characters are running around the streets of London narrowly missing each other).
It wasn't dramatic enough because the characters were on the whole cartoons and I didn't really feel involved or concerned about them - it seemed very "american formula road trip" but set in 1950s UK - nice handsome lead character, funny fat guy with a heart, pretty girl who starts off strong but ends up simply being the love interest for the lead character, and then the geeky skinny non-entity who makes good before the end. There was some tension in the scenes set in Westminster Abbey when they were trying to steel the stone - but you never really believed that they were ever going to be caught (but of course the 50s were years before mobile phones, laser burglar alarms, and burglars abseiling down from ceilings on micro wires.
From a political point of view it was pretty full on in its portrayal of the Nationalist movement - but even this didn't feel fully developed and was perhaps more of an attempt to impress Sean Connery who is a staunch advocate of Scottish Independence and was at the Premiere as well as he is Patron of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Despite these comments I did enjoy the film. I probably won't buy the DVD but I may well rent it wen it comes out.