HUGE

by Mark'd Commode

1.5 out of 10

Release Date: 8th July 2011

Director: Ben Miller

Cast: Noel Clarke, Johnny Harris, Oliver Chris, Michelle Ryan, Russell Tovey, Tamsin Egerton, Ricky Grover, Andy Linden, Simon Day, Lucy Liemann, Steven Cree, Matt Berry, Pippa Haywood, Rasmus Hardiker with Ralph Brown and Thandie Newton

Writer: Jez Butterworth & Simon Godley

Trailer: HUGE

Huge is an unfunny comedy and stand up comedy.  Its just tragic. Its funniest moment comes from sped up footage of a goldfish.  Playwright Jez Butterworth is generally a whole lot better than this.  His play Jerusalem was a huge West End success a few years back and is one of my favourite modern plays.  Previous films, Mojo and The Birthday Girl were interesting and entertaining, so what’s the problem here?  Well it’s not the performances, both leads Noel Clarke (4-3-2-1) and Johnny Harris (LAST DAYS OF MARS) are sound. It’s the script.  Nothing is funny or in the least bit convincing.  The plot is the slimmest yet.

An unfunny comedian teams up with a heckler to become the next Morecambe & Wise.  Only they have no chemistry on-stage or off.  They don’t even act or seem to have any idea what ‘funny’ is.  That’s not the production I’m talking about, that’s the plot.  Huge is about failure. But it also fails to make come up with interesting to say.  The film trundles along aimlessly even taking in a tracking shot at a party that includes a “who’s who” of British Comedy.  Don’t buy the DVD that mis-sells this fact as a cameo appearances by the likes of Frank Skinner, Eddie Izzard, Jack Dee, Jo Brand, Al Murray and a ton of others, they are barely worth crediting as crowd extras.

Noel Clarke and Johnny Harris do their damnedest to breathe life into his D.O.A. fish of a movie.  Any pathos or humour is left to echo in a very empty box of a movie.  Their non-existent act consists of a knock knock joke about obscurity.  That’s where this little guff of a film is headed. What it needed were some good jokes, or maybe some footage of rival comedians who can get a crowd laughing.  With the total absence of any humour at all, Huge pootles along to a goofy feel-good ending that doesn’t convince for a second. The tone is uneven as well, if it is indeed a drama and not a comedy, why have we got Oliver Chris‘ (GREEN WING) manic spack of a groupie mugging for England or Thandie Newton’s (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II) OTT theatrical agent to the stars, tipping everything over?  Cameos from Michelle Ryan (CLEANSKIN) and Ralph Brown (ALIEN 3) are in danger of giving the movie a faint pulse but on the whole this died at the editing stage.  It was cold at the cinema and on DVD you can see the rigor mortis has set in.

1.5 out of 10 – Noel Clarke‘s worst film so far in that it’s an empty box of a film. A missed opportunity to explore the London comedy scene.  A dismal script will challenge even the most patient viewer.  There’s more life in Ken Dodd‘s old tickle stick than Huge. Flaccid would have been a better title.

WHAT HAVE I SEEN THAT ACTOR IN BEFORE?

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