Now here's a first: being the only person in an entire cinema. Luckily for me it was a multiplex or there would have been more staff than customers. As it was, knowing there were more people in the projection booth than in my particular screen was still disconcerting. Not that such a low turn-out for Circus should be unexpected - it has been critically slated by the British press, even the most lenient review (in Empire) giving it just two stars.
I think a lot of it is due to snobbery, as a great deal of the cast are firmly known as "light entertainment" stars. This shouldn't be a problem for American audiences, who wouldn't have heard of Christopher Biggins or Brian Conley, much less Neil Stuke. And in fairness, most of the cast singled out for criticism were actors first, comedy actors second. Take Christopher Biggins. He has starred in television productions of I, Claudius, The Tempest and Poldark II. Yet audiences remember him as the camp co-host of "Surprise, Surprise", chairman of pants quiz show for kids, "On Safari" and as "Adam Painting" in Rentaghost when it started to get rubbish. Neil Stuke, too, is a real actor, a list of his work including Mad Cows, Sliding Doors and Dennis Potter's penultimate work, "Karaoke". Only a single role - the splendidly neurotic Matthew in sitcom "Game On" - keeps attracting the gaze of reviewers.
The only two genuine comedians, then, are Brian Conley and Eddie Izzard. Izzard is okay, though not about to win any awards, though Brian is quite a find. His first stab at "real" acting (He's done it before, though mainly as an O.T.T. gym master in sitcom "The Grimleys"), he plays gangland boss Bruno Maitland, who has a predilection for blasphemy. ("Jesus Christ in a f***** blender" is one of his more humorous sacrilegious outbursts). In fact, despite the glut of negative reactions attached to the quartet of comedians, it is really only John Hannah who disappoints in the acting stakes with an unforgivably flat performance.
The plot, of course, is preposterous. It must set the world record for the number of twists in a movie, none of them particularly convincing, and all of them convoluted. In fact, so strained is the mind trying to unravel all the "he-did-that-but-really-she-said-this-and-he-meant-that" that Leo (Hannah) is forced to record a plot device video message to Bruno explaining the storyline.
Since 1998's diverting (but not really as good as it's made out to be) "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", the British film industry has gone into overdrive, churning out a conveyer belt of crime movies that aren't funny enough to be comedies, and aren't dramatic enough to be The Long Good Friday. Circus is possibly above even for the current spate, though I wouldn't claim it to be a classic. I did, however, find it roughly average and a lot better than reviews have made out. Just one last thing - you never do get to find out why it's called Circus...
I think a lot of it is due to snobbery, as a great deal of the cast are firmly known as "light entertainment" stars. This shouldn't be a problem for American audiences, who wouldn't have heard of Christopher Biggins or Brian Conley, much less Neil Stuke. And in fairness, most of the cast singled out for criticism were actors first, comedy actors second. Take Christopher Biggins. He has starred in television productions of I, Claudius, The Tempest and Poldark II. Yet audiences remember him as the camp co-host of "Surprise, Surprise", chairman of pants quiz show for kids, "On Safari" and as "Adam Painting" in Rentaghost when it started to get rubbish. Neil Stuke, too, is a real actor, a list of his work including Mad Cows, Sliding Doors and Dennis Potter's penultimate work, "Karaoke". Only a single role - the splendidly neurotic Matthew in sitcom "Game On" - keeps attracting the gaze of reviewers.
The only two genuine comedians, then, are Brian Conley and Eddie Izzard. Izzard is okay, though not about to win any awards, though Brian is quite a find. His first stab at "real" acting (He's done it before, though mainly as an O.T.T. gym master in sitcom "The Grimleys"), he plays gangland boss Bruno Maitland, who has a predilection for blasphemy. ("Jesus Christ in a f***** blender" is one of his more humorous sacrilegious outbursts). In fact, despite the glut of negative reactions attached to the quartet of comedians, it is really only John Hannah who disappoints in the acting stakes with an unforgivably flat performance.
The plot, of course, is preposterous. It must set the world record for the number of twists in a movie, none of them particularly convincing, and all of them convoluted. In fact, so strained is the mind trying to unravel all the "he-did-that-but-really-she-said-this-and-he-meant-that" that Leo (Hannah) is forced to record a plot device video message to Bruno explaining the storyline.
Since 1998's diverting (but not really as good as it's made out to be) "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", the British film industry has gone into overdrive, churning out a conveyer belt of crime movies that aren't funny enough to be comedies, and aren't dramatic enough to be The Long Good Friday. Circus is possibly above even for the current spate, though I wouldn't claim it to be a classic. I did, however, find it roughly average and a lot better than reviews have made out. Just one last thing - you never do get to find out why it's called Circus...