Surprise, surprise

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2009)

This film is far better than is deserves to me I think.
I was thinking 'Porkies' rolled up with 'The Real Cancun' or something when I saw the trailers. In reality, this smart comedy is a delight. It's fast-paced, very irreverent and spot on for gross-out-ness.
One minor unsettling thing about it (for me anyway) was the veiled sub-plot involving the bearded brother and his paedophilia. I'm afraid I didn't quite get it and the subject was approached in such a way as to be very disturbing. I don't quite know why but I'd question why anyone would need to include that in this fine romp. I can only assume it is introduced to induce a low-level feeling of anxiety in the viewer that this brother is going to so something so heinous during the film that it will shock ... if that's the aim then I suppose it does take one's mind off some of the visual gags etc that would give the excellent twist in the tail away. Having said that, I did view the 'uncut' R-rated version and maybe this material was cut from the final cinema release? I'm not saying it was wrong to try and unsettle the audience even more or anything, just that it didn't seem to belong there.
I thoroughly enjoyed this despite thinking I wouldn't