Dad’s Army **½ (2016, Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Daniel Mays, Blake Harrison, Bill Paterson) – Movie Review

There’s a World War Two German spy at work in Walmington-on-Sea and the old boys of the Home Guard are entranced by lovely visiting female journalist Rose Winters (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in this unexpected sitcom revival movie spin off from the antique beloved TV series.

The casting helps: Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Daniel Mays, Blake Harrison, Bill Paterson mostly give very competent impersonations of their TV characters Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Lance Corporal Jones, Private Godfrey, Private Walker, Private Pike and Private Frazer. The casting director has done a grand job, getting it more or less right. It’s easy to warm to Jones, Nighy, Courtenay and Gambon in their roles.

The Dad’s Army Appreciation Society and die-hard fans of the old TV show should appreciate it. But it’s inevitably creaky, a wobbly antique suffering form dry rot, woodworm and the general ravages of age.

Writer Hamish McColl, a veteran of Mr Bean’s Holiday (2007) and Johnny English Reborn (2011) and Paddington (2014), has his work cut out trying to raise laughs, but more funny jokes certainly would help.

The British actors really do their darnedest with it, though Hollywood star Zeta-Jones seems a little uncomfortable in Walmington-on-Sea. Along with the cheery ensemble performances and Oliver Parker‘s brisk and competent direction, the film’s warm nature and good humour see it getting by cheerily enough.

It’s nice that two actors return from the original TV cast – Ian Lavender, promoted from Private Pike to Brigadier Pritchard, and Frank Williams, re-creating his old role as the vicar, the Rev Timothy Farthing. But it’s a shame they haven’t got a bit more to do, actually a lot more to do.

A sign reads ‘Croft and Perry Pawnbrokers’ in tribute to devisers David Croft and Jimmy Perry. Though the fictional town of Walmington-on-Sea is revealed in the film to be on the south coast of England, equidistant from Brighton and Hastings, filming was in Bridlington East Yorkshire.

There was a previous Dad’s Army movie, in 1971, with the beloved TV cast of Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/