STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
After a hotly tipped film turns into a complete disaster, documentary maker Andy Wiseman (Rik Mayall) tracks some notable people involved down a year later to get their input behind what went wrong, mainly the director Harlan Noble (Roland Manookian), camera man Mike Rosferry (Steven Berkoff), sleazy producer Derek La Farge (Danny Dyer), actor and alcoholic in denial Wilson Barnes (Billy Murray) and hears how things got nasty when underworld heavy Malcolm 'Mental Fists' Wickes (Craig Fairbrass) came looking for the funding he invested in the film when he saw what a damp squib it was.
Just for the Record has set out as both a clever mock documentary about a troubled/abandoned production and a clever parody of the British film industry, but isn't awfully successful as either. An obviously low budget piece, with a misleading and cheap looking front cover, it has a veritable cast of hot British talent but gives them material none of them seem capable of pulling off (Danny Dyer with a luvvie accent?!?) It's far too inspired an idea to be a complete failure, and it produces the odd chuckle here and there, but the flaws are very clear to see and it all only achieves half the desired effect. **
After a hotly tipped film turns into a complete disaster, documentary maker Andy Wiseman (Rik Mayall) tracks some notable people involved down a year later to get their input behind what went wrong, mainly the director Harlan Noble (Roland Manookian), camera man Mike Rosferry (Steven Berkoff), sleazy producer Derek La Farge (Danny Dyer), actor and alcoholic in denial Wilson Barnes (Billy Murray) and hears how things got nasty when underworld heavy Malcolm 'Mental Fists' Wickes (Craig Fairbrass) came looking for the funding he invested in the film when he saw what a damp squib it was.
Just for the Record has set out as both a clever mock documentary about a troubled/abandoned production and a clever parody of the British film industry, but isn't awfully successful as either. An obviously low budget piece, with a misleading and cheap looking front cover, it has a veritable cast of hot British talent but gives them material none of them seem capable of pulling off (Danny Dyer with a luvvie accent?!?) It's far too inspired an idea to be a complete failure, and it produces the odd chuckle here and there, but the flaws are very clear to see and it all only achieves half the desired effect. **