I don’t
know what exactly you’d call this weird little made-for-TV movie. Britain’s answer to Airplane!, maybe? It’s an
oddball comedy, definitely too goofy for its own good but not entirely without
amusement. The plot is outrageous and
the fast-and-furious gags are sometimes groan-worthy (“I’ll have my bill,” a
guest says, and receives a large plastic toucan beak) and sometimes
chuckle-worthy (“I want you to have my children!” “Are you sure you don’t want them
anymore?”) Really, the best description
I can give is “bonkers.”
The
Nearby Hotel, where most of the staff is out of its mind and everything is
taken literally, becomes an unwitting hotbed of activity when Air Force One
makes an unscheduled landing. With the
president of the United States cooling his heels in a suite, a gang of eastern
European terrorists seize the opportunity to infiltrate the hotel and wreak
havoc. It’s up to Ben Carter, a hotel
worker/former commando, to save the free world.
PC
plays Hilton Gilfoyle, the hotel manager.
Hilton is a rather stunning combination of self-absorbed, incompetent,
and, when the terrorists arrive, cowardly.
His resolve immediately crumbles to atoms, and he’s eager to exchange
any and all information he has for assured safety.
What
can I say? Hilton is absolutely silly, an
over-the-top goofball completely out of his depth. Because the whole movie is so off-the-wall,
it actually doesn’t bug me the way parts of Fortysomething
did. Here, everyone inhabits a crazy
world doing ridiculous things, which is preferable to “a bunch of people having
relatively normal reactions to farcical situations, plus this one
lunatic.” It’s another singing role –
naturally the optimal response to a terrorist incursion is to lead a group
hostage sing-along.
He’s
not the only talented actor perplexingly involved in this bizarre film. Keeley Hawes, who I know best from Death at a Funeral, plays a fetching
concierge, and Ben is played by none other than Eighth Doctor Paul McGann.
Accent Watch
A
rather light Scottish accent.
Recommend?
In
General
– While I admit that certain gags cracked me up, I don’t know if I can in good
conscious recommend this film on its own merits; it’s just so weird.
PC-wise – Eh… a very subdued “possibly?” PC commits 100% to the silliness and is
pretty darn funny, but… eh.
Warnings
Sexual
references; there’s also a lot of guns being waved around, but the actual
violence is minimal.
No comments:
Post a Comment