Keith Lemon: The Film
Director: Paul Angunawela
Actors: Laura Aikman, Leigh Francis
Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001
Genre(s): Factual
Running time: 84 (16) minutes
First of all, can anyone remember when a movie version of one-note TV character actually worked? Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy Celebrity Juice, but building an entire film around its fictitious host, Keith Lemon, isn’t just pointless it's downright ridiculous and this horrific comedy proves it.
Talented impressionist (?) Leigh Francis is the titular Keith, a Northerner from Leeds who dreams of making it big in London - just like Richard Branson. Heading down south to seek fame and fortune, he promptly becomes an overnight billionaire and just as promptly loses it all. It's a redemption story, really. No, really. Somewhere in there Peter Andre and Jedward combine forces with innumerable other Z-listers to deliver a "celebrity" cameo pretty much every other scene.
While completely understanding that comedy is possibly the most subjective of genres and one person's chuckle-fest is another's comedic holocaust, Keith Lemon the movie is still utterly cack. I'm all for rude jokes, crassness and a general air of offensiveness, but there's nothing else here other than knob gags and Kelly Brook in lingerie. Granted, the latter at least stopped me from counting the lights on the cinema screen steps for a few moments.
Did it make me laugh at all? Well, sometimes films are so bad that as they move along, mercifully closing in on some form of conclusion, your expectations are lowered. But after the fifteenth gag that was pretty much the same as the second gag - just with a different celebrity - it really begins to grate.
Francis is a talented guy but making a film was a bad idea to begin with. About as funny as a tween knife-fight.
