Despite the high profile pairing of Lee Evans and Kathy Burke, The Martins is an iffy drama / comedy in which Evans plays Robert Martin, the head of a strangely dysfunctional family who live beside a giant shopping centre by a massive motorway. His family aren't exactly the most charming lot - wife (Burke) is a forceful woman, young son (Byrne) has kleptomaniac tendencies, while his daughter (Dumont) gets pregnant. But Robert's so determined to make their lives better that he goes to extreme - and sometimes - illegal measures. What's most surprising about The Martins is that the production company, most recently responsible for Billy Elliot, felt that there was something here that deserved the big screen treatment. And while Evans and Burke are their usual impressive selves, the quality of the script, lack of narrative thrust and flaccid direction makes The Martins a lack luster exercise in humour.
