Review of A Bunch of Amateurs (2008) by Martin H — 24 Mar 2011

A low-budget British comedy mostly shot on the Isle of Man that was somehow chosen as the 2008 Royal Command Performance film. Despite such publicity, the film sank without trace, and was slagged off, and it's easy to see why, it's a cliched culture-clash comedy even though it has a game lead who sends up egotistical movie stars.

It has Burt Reynolds as Jefferson Steel, a has-been action film star who has seen better days and has been in better films. He wants to do something worthwhile, and his agent Charlie Rosenberg (Charles Durning) gives him the offer of a lifetime, the chance to play King Lear in Stratford, England.

Jefferson thinks it's in Stratford-upon-Avon, and arrives in the UK in a flourish of publicity. Only to find he's holed up in the tiny Suffolk village of Stratford St John. The theatre is no more than a converted barn on a pig farm, Jefferson is holed up in a tiny B&B ran by Mary (Imelda Staunton), the Stratford players are a group of amateur actors led by director Dorothy Nettle (Samantha Bond), this isn't what Jefferson wanted, he's miles from home and his creature comforts and clashes with local wannabe thespian Nigel Dewberry (Derek Jacobi).

It does have it's moments, but they're few and far between, alot of the comedy on display in the film is obvious and ripped off from any British sitcom. It feels a bit like Local Hero in places, but with little of the charm.