Alejandro Mora A BRILLIANT FILM!!! Reminiscent of Michel Gondry's work, Paul King has created a fantasy world that is both beautiful and unique. It touched a soft spot as it reminded me of my relationship to my best friend, and how our lives ended up.The worlds created for this touching film are all surreal, beautifully crafted from books, paper mache, and other arts & crafts. The acting is flawless by all the actors including the beautiful Veronica Echegui.I was sad to find that he doesn't have any other features out yet. Can't wait to see more. Absolutely loved it and highly recommend it. It's currently available on Netflix streaming (as of May 2011).

rooee Paul "Mighty Boosh" King storms onto the silver screen with a cavalcade of imaginative imagery, from a snow globe mountain retreat to a clockwork bullfight, but then attempts to meld it all with an atrocious script, which is at times inane, elsewhere sentimental, and riddled with boring f-bombs. The dialogue is full of jokes but empty of wit or insight.Broadly (and it often is) the film is about a traumatised and possibly agoraphobic young man named Stephen who musters a lo-fi Euro road trip in his head, the landscape and characters forged only by the contents of his apartment. If it sounds like Amelie then that's because it is like Amelie, right down to the rippling piano score. Difference is, Amelie, under its sugary shell, contained pathos and humanity, and its surreal digressions were complementary to a solid and coherent plot.King's film is a cauldron of slapstick, surrealism and homosexual tension, all stuttering along on the power of a pair of lifeless performances. As a viewer all we have to root for is the soppy, infantile Stephen (Edward Hogg) and the crass, infantile Bunny (Simon Farnaby).There's an almost amusing turn from Richard Ayoade as a bored shore museum curator. Noel Fielding's matador cameo shows promise then descends into a loud nothing.Woven well into the wayward narrative, the animated asides are arresting in a Lloyd's TSB ad kind of way, providing welcome respite from the highly variable sketches in between. But ultimately they only serve to remind us of the talent that's going down with the ship. It all comes across as quite "random"; except we know it's anything but. It really was meant to be this way.The whole venture reaches its nadir with a homeless zoophile who drinks milk from a dog, at which point you may wish to follow Bunny and leap through the frozen ice to save yourself.

Robots_In_Disguise Like most of you, I'm a big fan of the Mighty Boosh. Because of this, I was very keen to see director Paul King's latest project which featured cameos of my two favorite men, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. At first, I was a little perplexed as to why the two unknown leads were cast as Stephen and Bunny, when they looked exactly like Noel and Julian. I was also under the impression that they were 'The Flighty Zeus', which I now know is only half true. Another impression I had was that this film would be absolutely hilarious. Although I wasn't expecting much apart from a few laughs and a few cameos what I got out of this film was so much more.As the film begins, we are introduced to a character known as Stephen, who hasn't left his flat in over a year. Due to a rodent infestation, Stephen is forced to leave the flat, but not before retelling the tale of how he became so housebound. Using various objects around the house with special appearances made by Bunny, he tells the story of when the two of them traveled around Europe. Through the use of stop motion animation and amazing special effects, we travel back a year.The story provides a great deal of humor with a number of 'laugh out loud' moments. The cameos from Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt and Richard Ayaode are hilarious and yet, they never manage to outshine the leads. Previously unknown, Edward Hogg and Simon Farnaby bring something to the script that I don't think even the Boosh boys could manage. They are the heart and soul of the movie, and when you learn their story, your heart breaks.Throughout the film, I was in amazement at how original the idea was, how beautiful the effects were, despite such a low budget. I was also giggling non stop just at the thought of Julian or Noel in those crazy costumes. Then suddenly, as the film draws to an end, Bunny decides he must prove himself to Stephen by challenging a bull. Bunny takes off and Stephen follows him. 'Where did this all come from?' I found myself asking. Suddenly a beautiful clockwork bull charges at Bunny and directly spears him in the chest. He drops to the ground, my stomach drops as well. Stephen sits in the empty field next to Bunny's body and I find tears streaming down my face.The film then flashes back to Stephen in the apartment, for after all, this has just been a story he's been telling. We learn why he is so housebound, why he's been afraid to leave the house. Finally, with a few encouraging words from Bunny, who we find out, wasn't really there in the flat with him at all, Stephen gets his courage and leaves the house.What a beautiful bitter sweet story he has just told.

stopjen What makes this film absolutely sublime is the lingering melancholy - faint yet stubbornly persistent - ubiquitous through all the quirky, surreal, and comical sequences. It's never self-indulgent or over-sentimental. All elements, be it emotions, performances, sets, character development, or animation, are well-controlled and contained as a proper English would have it; yet it's radical, outrageous, bold, and sometimes uncomfortably daring. Elegance rises through vulgarity, and (almost unbearable) sadness screams silently. This film is unique, delightful, touching, funny, and yes, wicked. It's not Boosh but fans or otherwise shall be pleasantly surprised.