Review: Churchill: The Hollywood Years (15)
AMERICA'S habit of changing history to make it look like they won World War Two completely on their own is mercilessly sent up in this hit-and-miss spoof.
Remember Winston Churchill as the venerable old chap with the cigar? Wrong. According to this comedy one of the country's most famous leaders was actually a gung-ho America marine with a taste for English princesses.
On the way he falls in love with a young princess Elizabeth (Neve Campbell) and discovers some embarrassing footage of Adolf Hitler (Anthony Sher).
If you loved classic comedy series The Comic Strip Presents... then this will be right up your street as director Pete Richardson (the mastermind behind the 1980s series) brings all the same element to this film.
He packs it with a high quality British cast of some of the country's best known performers, including Reeves and Mortimer, James Dreyfuss and Rik Mayall and Harry Enfield - who steals every scene as the totally shambling King of England.
Despite the abundance of comedy talent in the film a lot of it goes to waste, as there aren't enough genuinely funny jokes to sustain the humour.
There are some nice moments, including Hitler at the hairdressers, but Churchill: The Hollywood Years feels like a television programme which has been needlessly stretched for the cinema.
Peter McKinney
l Churchill: The Hollywood Years is available to rent from Blockbusters, Market Place, Bromsgrove.
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