Review of Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

I found this film more obnoxious, certainly in the first half, than funny. The plot was pretty weak but then I assumed that would be the case. It improved in terms of comedy in the 2nd half of the film but frankly by that point, it was lucky I hadn't given up watching it. The first half seemed to be trying a bit too much to be seen to be really up to date in terms of IT girl culture, fashion, popular culture and the like. Of course its not to be taken at all seriously but it just seemed a bit too over the top and barely watchable for too long for my liking. The Absolutely Fabulous characters always were characters your not supposed to especially feel sorry for, well suprisingly(!) this is very much still the case. I think if the plot pace had been a bit slicker, a bit faster so to speak, it may have been better.

One of the more slightly amusing scenes is set on a budget airline when the 2 main characters board, waiting to travel to France. Rebel Wilson appears as a DNB (do nothing b***), welcoming everyone on board, where she says 'welcome to budget airways - where our only tossers are our baggage handlers' and 'there's no first class, just first arse in every seat' - comedy Gold, I'm sure you'll agree(!) well I thought it was mildly amusing.

While the first half of the film is somewhat louder and faster (not so much in terms of plot pace but in terms of environment/scenarios, with music and the like), its a bit calmer once set in France and I found it more entertaining, although it by no means was amazing, just a bit less in your face, less desperately (trying too hard) to impress. As you can probably imagine, it features quite a large amount of cheese. If you've seen the TV series then you'll have a rough idea what to expect, although I wouldn't say this film is better than the TV series.

A bit later on in the film and I noticed it features strong colourful lighting in the scenes set in France, making it look like a bit of a comic book - its all a bit exaggerated but then I suppose thats 'Ab Fab' for you, as its known as.

Would I recommend it?. Its slightly amusing, so if it comes on TV then it may be worth a watch but only if your a big fan of the show and/or cast but for the most part. There are some fairly funny moments but their spread quite wide apart and you have to sit through a sadly bland and not entertaining first half of the film to get to the more amusing moments, so overall I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to see it, no. Its somewhere between poor to ok-ish.