Dad's Army 2016 Film Review

Back in the seventies it wasn't unusual for a successful British sitcom to get a spin off feature film what is uncommon is for a sitcom from the sixties to get a feature film in more modern times. This was something that was the case with the film that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today is one such a film as while the show that it's based off of is still being shown on British TV screens to this very day it's not as well known as it was back in the day therefor it doesn't make that much sense for there to be a new film adaptation of it and so then join me as I review the film that sees Morticia from Wednesday flirting with both Dobby and Shauns dad with the film in question being called simply just "Dad's Army" enjoy.

The plot of this film is with the second world war due to end in a matter days the morale of Walmington On Sea home guard is at an all time low as the troops feel that they haven't really done anything to help in the efforts there morale soon changes when they are told there's a spy somewhere in the town and it's up to them to find them before it's to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually feature / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot basically serving as a standalone sequel to both the 1971 film and the original show both of the same name and yet at the same time this films plot doesn't really feel like a finale of sorts outside of the fact that it's dealing with the end of the second world war and that's really which in all fairness is an interesting thing to do from a plot perspective however it's the only interesting thing that this film does as it's plot is at best pretty thin and at it's worst is just straight up not even there as it's only when the film reaches the end of it's second act are the home guard even informed of the fact that there's a spy in there town this is despite the fact that the film shows us scenes with the spy sending messages back to Germany quite alot of the time with the film barely focusing on it's plot and yet when the film does focus on it's plot near the end of the film that's when we get to see the true potential that this film could have had as that's when it's plot gets to be both thrilling in a comedic way but also really fun as well with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Toby Jones as Captain Mainwaring , Bill Nighy as Sergeant Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rose Winters. Also starring in this film is Tom Courtenay as Lance Corporal Jones , Blake Harrison as Private Pike , Sir Michael Gambon as Private Godfrey , Bill Paterson as Private Frazer , Daniel Mays as Private Walker , Sarah Lancashire as Mrs Pike , Mark Gatiss as Colonel Theakes , Mark Tandy as Major Cunningham , Andrew Havill as Captain Meeks , Emily Atack as Daphne , Alison Steadman as Mrs Fox , Holli Dempsey as Vera Shilton , Annette Crosbie as Cissy Godfrey , Ian Lavender as Brigadier Pritchard , Frank Williams as the Reverend Timothy Farthing , Felicity Montagu as Mrs Mainwaring , Martin Savage as Warden Hodges , Oliver Tobias as Admiral Canaris , Julia Foster as Dolly Godfrey and Jacqueline Tong as Mrs Todd.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually feature / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films acting being alot better then what you think that it would as by all rights this films acting should have been really bad and yet you can tell just by the quality of the actors that are in this film that the films quality of acting is really high and while yes there some bad performances in this film like for example Martin Savage as Warden Hodges with the same thing also being true for Holli Dempsey as Vera Shilton for the rest of the films actors tho you can tell that they were all putting in there A game alot of the time and that is something that does help the film to be alot more better then what it really had any right to be with the best actor in the whole entire film being Toby Jones as Captain Mainwaring as performance wise he does feel like the only actor that is trying to replicate what original series actor Arthur Lowe did with the character with that being something that does help not only his performance in the film but also help to keep the character feeling like himself in the process with that being something that very easily could have been lost just by having Toby not turn in a performance that would feel true to his character with the rest of the actors who are playing the homeguard in this film turning in performances that whilst they are good they don't feel true to the original spirit of the characters with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

The characters in this film can be put into two categories as we have a load of characters that were remade from the original show and we have a whole bunch of new characters. With the characters that are crossing over from the show being ones that are handled better as there are several dozen episodes plus a feature film with them which does make it hard to really screw those characters up with them all acting like how they would have done in the show only now it's all the more bigger due to the fact that it's a movie. Yet it's the films newer characters that really do suffer as not alot of them are given alot of time to get across just what there personality is like with the exception being Rose and technically Mrs Mainwaring who yes was a character in the show but she was never actually seen on screen rather she was always just off screen with her making her debut in this film with it turning out that she's just as commanding as what her husband is which is something that does make the scenes between the two of them all the more fun to watch as they are both the same character with nothing new added to make one stand out from the other which is something that could be seen as being both a good and bad thing it's good thing in that it could create some good comedy in the film and it's bad thing as it makes the makers of this film seem lazy as it makes it look like that they don't know how to come up with a good idea for a female character and so then they just copied what worked with one of the make characters and with Rose right away you get the feeling that something is off about her as she acts all flirtatious with the members of home guard but when it comes to literally anyone else she acts cold and distant which is something that makes her character perhaps the most interesting out of all of the films new characters.

As was mentioned near the start of this review this film is one that could be considered a sequel to both the original show and the 1971 film. As the original film dealt with the platoon at the start of the second world war , the show was set mainly during the middle of the second world war with this film telling us the story of the end of that same war and yet given the fact that both the original film and show essentially take place in a different universe to each other it is possible that this film could be considered a sequel to both of them. With there not really being anything in this film that contradicts what was both said and done in both the film and show this doesn't mean however that you need to watch all nine series of the show and the original film in order to understand this film as that would be far to much homework for anyone to do as you can just watch this film and get a good feel for what the show was like and for what the original film was like due to the fact that the makers of this film did take great care to include little nods and easter eggs to the original show which you'll get irregardless
of if you've watched the show or not but in saying this tho due to the amount of easter eggs that are in this film it would be wise to check out both the first episode of the show and the first film just to help to get yourself acquainted with the characters as this film doesn't really bother to explain them all that much as it just expects you to know what the character dynamics are and what the running jokes from the show are with this being something that does make sense as let's be honest here alot of the people that would watch this film are the same ones that more then likely watched the original show when it was first being broadcast in 1968.

Kind of like the original film which it could be argued had an action packed ending when the platoon rescue The Vicar and some people from the church when it's overrun by Germans. This film also has a really action packed and at times quite heart wrenching ending to it as well as the platoon have to take a bunch of Germans plus Rose in a shoot out at the beach with all of the members truly getting there own chance to shine and whilst all of this is going on Pike has to rescue his girlfriend who has been chained to a rock and is slowly drowning with all of that truly coming together to make a heart pounding climax to the film something that is made even more exciting when all of their wives and girlfriends arrive to give them aid by shooting at the Germans from above and heck they even tease two members of the platoon dying something which doesn't happen but it's the fact that they teased it in the first place that makes it stand out all the more. Yet in all of that the thing that makes it heartwrenching is the fact that Pike admits to Wilson that he's scared as this is something that alot of young men who went to fight of in the war in any war for that matter would have had to deal with as much like they would have Pike has never had someone firing a gun at him before and therefor it does make sense that this would scare him with it being something that would scare anyone and given the fact that his whole thing in this film is to prove that he's a man and not a boy anymore and what better way to do that then to face down a bunch of Germans whilst trying to rescue the one woman that he truly loved in this film with him for once not doing anything that would cause the other members to call him a stupid boy as he was helping them do the bravest thing that anyone could ever do.

The film does make it painfully obvious who the spy of the film is as the film does show Rose sending several messages to Germany all throughout the film. Whilst this is something that does work for the film it also makes the characters look quite dumb as it's obvious from how she's acting that she's only warming up to the home guard just to get military secrets out of them something which they are oblivious to which you could argue is fair enough as a character like Pike hasn't really had a girlfriend before now and therefor when he sees this really attractive woman of course he's going to follow what the others are doing and go all mad over her but at the same time it doesn't make sense for a character like Wilson or even Mainwaring for that matter to do that as Mainwaring is to much of a war focused person who just wants to do his bit in helping the UK win the war and Wilson is quite literally the smartest person on the home guard and yet when they are around her they both act like school boys with the Rose character not really being helped by the fact that we don't get to find out all that much about her in the first place which again could be argued is something that does make sense as she is meant to be a spy but if the film is asking us to believe that she might not be the spy then they should have gone the extra mile in giving us clues as to who the spy might have been instead of outwardly telling us that it's Rose near the start of the film as all that does is put us the audience ahead of the characters with us then spending the rest of the film yelling at the characters to catch up with us when it would have made more sense if we never saw who was sending those messages in the first place as then the film could have had a decently well done mystery on its hands.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty nine minuets and fifty three seconds. Which to be fair to this film is pretty much the exact running time that you would expect this film to have in the first place with the film having more then enough plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet it could be argued that this film really should have been a little bit longer due to the fact that this film really doesn't use its running time all that wisely due to the fact that this film doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot as the film is alot more focused on having scenes that dont deal with the spy plot and instead deal with a small subplot about major army commanders telling the platoon that there home guard might now be disbanded as while that is great for some character drama near the end of the film as alot of them have to deal with the fact that they might have contributed anything to the war effort it's also something that adds nothing to the films overall plot with that small subplot adding nothing to the film as it eats up screen time would have been better used on both developing the plot of the film and also it's characters and while the characters from the show might not have needed character development due to the fact that they could have gotten that during any of the episodes of the show the films newer characters on the other hand could have used some character development as that would have helped to stand out all the more as none of the wives and girlfriends have anything that make them stand out and feel unique from each other and that is something that could have been fixed if this film was a little bit longer but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the film having alot of really cute jokes in it with that being the best word to describe the jokes in this film as there just that there cute and that well never be a bad thing as this film is meant to be a gentle comedy and therefor the jokes in it aren't going to be as heavy hitting as the jokes are in say American Pie or Wayne's World for example rather here your going to get jokes that more about everyday live and people just carrying on all because of the fact that there's a war on with the film even having a running joke where alot of people mistake Mainwaring for Winston Churchill due to the fact that when Mainwaring takes his glasses of he does kind of look him which is a decent running joke for the film to have with the best joke in the whole film being the fact that Godfrey goes of on these tangents at times when other people just want him to hurry up and get to the point which is a really cute joke as it's something that his character would do due to the fact that he is a bit of a forgetful character and therefor he would do something like that with it being something that does work in this film as it shows that the makers of this film know the characters from the show inside and out with the film being filled to brim with lots of little jokes and nods to the show all of which do work really well as that's just how well done that alot of this films jokes are in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall whilst this film might not be a good representation of just how good that the show could be when it was at it's best it is still a really good version of the show due to the fact that even tho it fails to recapture the magic of the show it does succeed in recapturing the spirit of the shows original characters in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked abut all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used int this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.