Review of Dad's Army (2016) by Eggmanstudio — 06 Feb 2016

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Viewer, if you think this movie is gonna be anything original?

At the very least, Dad's Army is a good try. It targets the original fans of Dad's Army a bit too much, and the result is that while it's funny when it is and the acting and characters are absolutely spot-on, the comedy is fleeting and the plot is too thin and predictable to justify making a movie out of it. The beginning and ending are quite interesting save for a few odd bits, but everything in between is just pointless, predictable nonsense.

Whilst the fleeting comedy is enjoyable, the rest is bogged down in schmaltz. If you have a deep-rooted nostalgia for Dad's Army then you might like this film for the pure nostalgia value, to look up from your chintz armchair and put down your teacup to point and say "Oooh, look at him! He looks just like Arthur Lowe!" but if you're a relative newcomer like I then I suggest you give this one a miss, since not having that 30-year-old ground knowledge will take away a significant amount of the enjoyment. It falls into the trap of being dead-on for a diehard fan of the source material whilst introducing nothing new and as such being not very interesting for newcomers.

All in all, Dad's Army is a passable, predictable but still mildly entertaining old people's film with nothing really new or interesting, getting most of its appeal from its schmalziness. Unless you're a Dad's Army afficionado, in which case this is absolutely perfect for you, then my suggestion would be to get it on DVD from a charity shop in a couple of years' time and watch it after a marathon of the original series.