really not that good actually

Rating: 3/10 (24 February 2007)

It's a little suspicious that the first few comments on IMDb about this film tend to be bad or mediocre, but that bad comments have since been swamped by thousands of not just good, but ecstatic ones.
I very much wonder if the production companies publicity machine is at work here. Or maybe there are just a lot of people out there who are happy to see a British comedy that recycles enough Hollywoodisms to be familiar enough for them to process without doing any work at all. Fair enough, why not. I'm all for supporting local talent. But at the end of the day, let's not pretend it's anywhere near as funny as it out to be, anywhere near as funny as the American action comedies it's based on and which it spoofs.
The jokes are clichéd, the one liners are tired, the renderings of British stereotypes are nowhere near as incisive or memorable as even a show like, say, little Britain, let alone the Office or Baron-Cohen's stuff. Even by British standards, the comedy isn't that hot, the plotting is weak, and the slippage between action and comedy at which the original American films excel is sloppily executed. With low expectations, you can definitely enjoy this film, it's funny in parts and it is after all great to see home-grown jokes with recognisable home-grown characters. But don't get your hopes up.