The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)

I am a massive fan of the LoG. I thought the first two series provided some of the best comedy this country has ever seen and the third series, though different, was wonderfully dark and imaginative. The thought of seeing Tubbs, Edward and Briss on the big screen made July 3 something to wait for. Yet, somewhere, it all went horribly wrong. The writers had no story and no real ideas. The part set in old England showed the glimmers of genius that we know the League are capable of but these scenes did not fit well with the film. Geoff provided the best of too few, largely poor jokes and Lipp and Briss's performances were big let-downs. If you love the League, save yourself the time and money and watch episodes from the TV series again. And again. A massive disappointment.

Fmovies: The best British Comedy Film ever! For years English comedy television programs have turned into films and have flopped, 'Are You Being Served?' 'Dads Army', the list goes on. However the popular dark humoured BBC television show; 'The League of Gentlemen' has managed to not only create a film which has managed to not be a flop but has also managed to be the best British Comedy Film ever! With its dark and horrific twists and turns The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is British Talent at its best! Its intriguing demonic storyline written by the League of Gentlemen (Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson) matches with the Gents (and guest cameos) superb acting! This I hope is not the end of Royston Vasey, not after this great success anyway! Don't think that if you have not seen The League of Gentlemen on the telly that you will not understand whats going on. Its all well explained and by the end of the film you will be happy with the result but you are still left hungry for more... Mmmm, Special Stuff.

Being a massive fan of the TV series (even to the extent of visiting Hadfield where its filmed!) I was waiting for this to come out from the second I heard about it. Perhaps my expectations were to high, but literally 30 mins into the film and I was thinking 'what have they done?'. Some of the best characters such as Tubbs n' Edward, Pauline n' Mickey n' the bizarre Papa Lazarou had about 10 minutes screen time between them, instead a lot of the film is taken up with the real life creators (aka the league of gentlemen) and some rather poor characters from their new 17th century story. I think what made the TV series so great was all the characters of Royston Vasey, this however did not feature that many in any great detail, and wasn't even really filmed in Royston Vasey for the most part. The whole cinema sat in mostly silence throughout the film, the only highlights in my opinion were the usual sexual innuendos from Herr Lipp (the best being his one involving two scouts at the start and their 'purple skins'!).

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse fmovies. "Wouldn't it be funny," thought Steve Pemberton, as the League sat down to pen a film script, "if our characters came after us, wanting to know why we wanted to kill them off?" Well, as it turns out, no, not really. In this misguided, post-modern set up (three words: Last Action Hero), bestial butcher Hilary Briss, predatory German exchange-teacher Herr Lipp and broken businessman Geoff Tipps step into the 'real world' to try to prevent the apocalypse of Roysten Vasey and sabotage the Gents' new project - an 18th century romp called The King's Evil. And ironically, this film-within-a-film, featuring a terrific cameo from Warner, is easily the best thing about this. The creators obviously had a blast, but many devotees will wonder why they've tampered with a winning formula.

This movie was the result of the fantastically darkly comic BBC TV series! It's a huge pity that this movie spin-off is let down by a poor script and by production values which are below what the TV series offered. It might have been better to take this idea and implement the best parts of it as the end of another TV series but this may not have been an option for the writers. The plot is basically two stories badly tacked together. There are some comic moments but not enough to make it necessary viewing. The audience I saw it with certainly didn't crack up laughing. As it stands it's a pretty disappointing big screen farewell to the excellent characters that have provided so many laughs on the small screen! Such a pity, I really wanted to be able to say something more positive!

Just saw 'The League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse' at a special screening in Manchester, with Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith of the League in attendance.

At the back was Peter Kay (who has a brief cameo in the film) affectionately heckling at the back during the Q & A session after the film.

The film was complicated (in a good way) and very very funny. It follows Geoff Tipps, Hilary Briss and Herr Lipp as they try and save fictional Rosyton Vasey from the disinterest of their creators.

The League play a wide range of their characters and themselves (or character based on themselves) and are ably supported by the cream of British character and comedy actors such as Bernard Hill, Victoria Wood and David Warner.

Warner is a particular stand out reminding me of his smooth and cutting turn in 'Time Bandits'.

The film swims in and out of various realities and allows some of the denizen's of Rosyton Vasey some space to grow beyond their usual limits of their comedy shtick.

Steve Pemberton's Herr Lipp has a great Bretchian moment near the end of the movie and has to make a decision about his purpose and meaning in life which brings a lump to the throat at an unexpected moment and surprises you with its tender affection for the characters.

This echoes something Mark and Reece said in the Q & A afterwards, that the plot of the league being tired of their famous characters is spurious and that the whole film is really a love letter to them.

For a format that started as a radio character-based sketch show, these guys have really evolved the idea so far as to sustain a movie which takes you on a journey through fiction, 'reality', comedy, tragedy and a pleasing journey for two of the less obvious characters to carry a long form story from their 70 odd existing creations.

The fans of the show will love it. It pays off dedication and attention to detail in spades, the uninitiated may be a little lost, but the joy of the LoG was always the ability to almost instantly tune into their acutely observed characters and take the stylistic leap into farce and expressionistic movie homage.

There are homages a plenty in this one including 'The Shining' and 'La Belle et la Bete', to name but two I spotted and they ably demonstrate their love for cinema and history with a segment in 1690's England that makes perfect sense when you're engaged with the movie.

What can I say, I marvelled, boggled, emoted and snickered throughout and they have definitely pulled off what many have failed at. A successful British TV comedy to cinema translation.

If you've watched and enjoyed 'The League of Gentlemen' in the past, go see it; you will enjoy.

If you haven't, rent/buy a DVD and then go see it.

Well done guys and thanks for the charming and humorous Q & A.