Review of Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie (2014) by Colin W — 26 Aug 2014

Apparently, this isn't the first time Brendan O'Carroll's much-loved (and bashed) creation, the loud, potty-mouthed Irish "Mammy" Mrs Agnes Brown has marched in women's high heels onto the silver screen. Anjelica Huston portrayed her in Agnes Brown in 1999 but it fell flat in the States. However, it fared better on this side of the Atlantic...and over the Irish Sea. 15 years later, following the global TV phenomenon which was Mrs Brown's Boys, O' Carroll has decided to give the not quite so darling but still loveable Agnes a second chance to hit the multiplex with better results - and he might have just succeeded as Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie is the best movie outing for a TV comedy character since Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and proves that Mammy is still the funniest drag queen since the late great extraordinary talent who was Robin Williams dressed up to become Euphegenia Doubtfire.

I, for one, have grown to absolutely love Mrs Brown, having laughing at various episodes till I was on the brink of death. While not exactly sophisticated, outrageously shocking, amateurishly produced and rude beyond words, the language used partially says it all, there's something about an elderly woman talking like a sailor, treating grumpy and useless old relatives like the stuff dogs leave on pavements, sticking her nose where it's not wanted even if it's her own children's lives, and whose best friend is no better than she is that I find rather amusing even if watching it for that long almost killed me. I mean, who couldn't laugh at the moment Granddad (Dermot O'Neill) tried out a newly installed toilet next to a gas leak or when Agnes, thinking she was going to a hen party, comes bursting into the pub riding a long inflatable pink sausage thingy during a wake?

But how the sitcom, filmed on stage before a live audience, would work as a film is anyone's guess (am I the only one who keeps forgetting this and thinks the show was shot on location given how realistic the sets seem to look?). D' Movie, however, solves that problem within minutes and, in a similar fashion to The Muppet Movie and its follow-ups, it takes Agnes and co out of that particular environment and into the open. They don't go to the States however a la Bean and Borat, a tired scenario which would have derailed the film if they did. But where they do go is the place where they would all feel right at home - Dublin.

The narrative itself is hardly anything original, it's just your basic "good guys team up against bad guy" story, the villain here being a Russian businessman and his cronies trying to get their hands on the Brown family "low-fat" apple stall but D' Movie's success lies more on its sick jokes, the characters' potty mouths and presenting Ireland's capital city in its ye old antiquated charm than the simple but oh so ridiculous plot.

After the best thirty-second fire escape warning to precede any film ever, D' Movie starts with a Les Mis-style musical number in Moore Street. The opening scenes move with the pace of an elder in a zimmerframe (there's a great gag about one later) but the jokes come thick and fast and in the spirit of the Mrs Brown TV show, bloopers are made here and there but things just carry on regardless.

Highlights include Winnie (O'Carroll's sister Eilish) admitting she performed bestiality on a goat, Buster and Dermot (son Danny and his friend Paddy Houlihan) planning a heist and being chased by jeep, Rory (Rory Cowan) point-blank refusing to swim the English Channel, Granddad coming to the rescue by boat like The A-Team's Hannibal Smith with grey locks, some raunchy courtroom shenanigans worthy of Liar Liar with a lawyer suffering from Tourette's (Robert Bathurst) and new character Mr Wang (O'Carroll again) leading a trusty band of blind ninjas, all of whom provide a genius moment through an air vent. One misfiring car bomb joke aside, this is all classic Brown stuff.

D' Movie has a few more slight niggles. It seems that O'Carroll wants this to be a mix of filthy comedy and moving drama but here, he adds a bit too much of the latter. The Mrs Brown show succeeded in keeping the right balance of humour and pathos without becoming too poignant during its sad moments. The film, on the other hand, doesn't and becomes overly sentimental at times. A few members of the Brown family get little screen time as well like Bono (O'Carroll's grandson Jamie) and Trevor (Martin Delany) but they were only ever minor characters.

These faults, however, are not too noticeable and there's plenty of dirty stuff to enjoy here so you do get your money's worth. Brendan O'Carroll is certainly enjoying doing this and is on top form as usual but it wouldn't be fair to say his wife, the wonderful Jennifer Gibney, is having a blast as well and making Mammy's daughter Cathy as likeable as ever (I like Cathy). The rest of the cast are great as well as the show's regulars. Mrs Brown's Boys D' Movie is proof that some of the earlier TV comedy movie adaptations, especially the critically mauled Guest House Paradiso and The Harry Hill Movie, were made for the enjoyment of the fans and not to be serious Oscar contenders. It's certainly one of the better ones and probably the greatest Dublin tourist information video ever made. You'd better leave the film running while the end credits roll. You'll miss a bunch of cracking and hilarious outtakes if you do.

D' Movie is d'bomb!