SnoopyStyle Simon Garden (Steve Coogan) is an "annoying" incompetent parole officer. Of his thousand clients, he could only point to three successes; George (Om Puri), Jeff, and Colin. He gets transferred to Manchester. Police Inspector Burton (Stephen Dillane) chases down juvenile car thief Kirsty and recovers drugs. She becomes Simon's case and claims the drugs were planted. He asks out police constable Emma (Lena Headey). At a strip club, he witnesses Burton selling the drugs and murdering his criminal partner. He escapes but leaves behind his wallet. Burton threatens him with a murder frame-up but later, he decides to take on the corrupt hero cop with the help of his clients, and the mysterious Victor (Omar Sharif).Coogan is playing a well-meaning buffoon in a light caper police crime drama. He delivers some good comedy and a couple of outlandish gross-out jokes. Vomiting on the roller-coaster is hilarious. The movie could have staked out that area and made this utterly stupid. Instead, it tries to straddle both gross out stupidity and light caper comedy. It needs to pick how serious to treat the material. As it stands, it struggles to satisfy both high-minded and low-brow comedic tastes.

cosmorados Simon Garden is an annoying Parole Officer who tries to see the best in everyone, fills them with inspirational anecdotes and hope that they'll see the error of her ways, however, as it is hardened criminals he deals with it is about as successful as a Bush Presidency. Forced out by his colleagues at Blackpool he is offered a position in Manchester, but things here go from bad to worse as he witnesses a corrupt cop kill an accountant and is forced out from there as well. As he recalls that the security system in the building will have acted as a second witness to the crime he galvanises the skills of the three men who have gone straight in order to rob the bank that houses the security tape.This is a pretty standard British comedy that is marked out by a number of good gags (the roller coaster scene in particular) and the actual raid itself. The performances in the film are all as good as they can be with Steve Coogan in fine form as the meek Parole Officer trying to be a role model for people who don't want one. The support of Ben Miller, Lena Hedley, Steven Waddinton, Om Puri (He's always good) and Emma Williams are all fine and the cameo at the end of the film is one that is worth waiting for.The script is a simple tale that is made as good as it can be and is kind of a throwback to the great Ealing comedies of the forties and fifties with a more contemporary edge and for the most part it is successful. The only downside for me is that, knowing Manchester the way I do, I know that certain buildings aren't where they appear in this film and that is a bit of an issue, but that said this is still essentially an enjoyable Sunday afternoon film for people who want to see Steve Coogan as something other than support in successful American films.Worth a watch.

gbeacock This is a John Duigan movie, one of my favourite directors. I love the way he wraps an entertaining movie around an art film. Every time I re-watch one of his films I find more of the symbolism of the art film inside. I've only seen this one once so far -on Showcase in Canada-, so I'm holding any vote till later, if I can get it on DVD. Apparently it hasn't been released in North America yet.What strikes me most so far are parallels with The Pink Panther. I love those films too, but hated Clouseau/Sellers. I have a feeling it will be the same here. Some people have pointed out that Sharif's cameo was pointless. But Sharif/Victor=Niven/Phantom complete with complicit wife and had to be in there somewhere. Duigan used the tale "Baba Yaga and the little girl" in Lawn Dogs, but Victor represented a different Baba Yaga reference similar to Bartok the Magnificent.It takes a while to get into Duigan movies, but it is well worth the effort. I'm even willing to put the effort into Paranoid. I'll edit and expand on this next time I watch it which I plan to do many times.

David198 This film has been almost universally criticised by reviewers, so much so that I rather assumed it would be an unfunny dud. I was pleasantly surprised!(S0ME VERY MINOR SPOILERS)The plot may be highly improbable and have some gaping holes (e.g. why didn't the murderers just destroy the incriminating video?) but it is a very strong storyline that carries you and the film along with it. The presence of Omar Sharif and Jenny Agutter lend real weight to the cast list - Sharif in particular is excellent though Agutter is under-used. And there are many genuinely funny scenes. The all-singing all-dancing 'feelgood' finale is reminiscent of Bend It Like Beckham. And for this British reviewer it was refreshing to see a very British film for a change, with British locations and a totally different 'feel' to most US fare.In my opinion, where the movie could have really benefited would have been from a rewrite of the weaker sections, where the jokes fall a bit flat. This could have taken it from being a good film to a great one.