Ham fisted and confused.

Rating: 4/10 (31 August 2018)

I am taking the time to add my two cents regarding the failings of this film, because it was so appallingly inept, in it's writing and direction, that I consider it an insult to the vast wealth of talent who invested themselves, too trustingly in a ponzi scheme of incompetence, and idiocy, where everybody loses. As someone not from the UK, I had not heard of Armando Ianucci, and after viewing this film, I can understand why. I had seen "In The Loop", almost a decade ago, and admit to being mightily disappointed in that effort, because it had been spruiked as a clever, satiric, political comedy, and failed to deliver on the promise, most miserably.
Now again, much was promised, an IMDB rating above 7, should indicate a movie of at least tolerable quality, and certainly not the pathetically urbane depiction of mass murder and inhuman terror like an out take from a Benny Hill sketch. In fact the only pathetic hackneyed comedy ploy he did not assault us with was Stalin, rapidly patting secret police chief Berias bald head, or chasing Molotov around the park with a pistol, to the Benny Hill theme. I very nearly gave up, and considered walking out, which is something I never do, but the first half of the film was so weak, that a One Star rating would have been generous for what had been delivered. Thankfully I stayed, and the film had so much historical content to try and squeeze in, that the director had to back off on his indulgent attempts at broad humour that may have been some misguided attempted homage to Pythonism, or God knows what other slapstick styles, he may have been alluding to. The resultant mishandling of the material, poorly written as it was, did give way to a more comprehensible narrative attempt as the film lurched to it's climax. Perhaps this is symptomatic of a world where indulging stupidity and folly deserves to be parodied. Stalinism was most certainly a loathesome period in history more deserving of ridicule than most, but precious little humour is to be found in terror, despotism and mass murder, and was most definitely beyond the talents of Mr Ianucci's pen. A more worthy subject for parody would be the hierarchy that supported the making of such an unworthy artistic effort. That is something I find truly funny, to think of the self important imbeciles that provided millions of dollars to make this farcically poor attempt at a farce.