Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (2025)

Coming along after three movies of varying quality (the superb "Diary", the lacklustre "Edge Of Reason", and the enjoyable "Baby" adventure), Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy has been pitched as a welcome return of a beloved female character that all women are eager to catch up with. It's more than that though. This is the return of a British institution, an iconic British woman (albeit played by an American) who yearns for a dash of the kind of romance that often feels left in the past while striding bravely through every pitfall of the modern world. Each movie is, at the very least, a great mix of comedy and comfort, and there's a fantastic selection of British acting talent on display (many of them reprising their roles here, even if only for a brief moment).

Time has moved along, and life continues to deny Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger again, as if there could be a replacement for her at this stage) any kind of permanent happiness, or so it seems. She now has two children (Mabel, played by Mila Jankovic, and the older Billy Darcy, played by Casper Knopf), but her life has a Mark Darcy-shaped hole in it. There's still the occasional flirting from Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, once again at his caddish best), but things finally start to look up when Bridget tries out Tinder and meets a young man named Roxster (Leo Woodall). Meanwhile, the children aren't always doing well, especially Billy, and this leads to a number of uncomfortable encounters with a new teacher, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

While the director of To Leslie doesn't really feel like a natural fit for this material, it turns out that making that assumption would just make an ass out of us and Michael Morris. Morris has the good sense to not get in the way of a talented cast all having fun with the screenplay co-written by Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan, and, of course, Helen Fielding, adapting her own novel. There's everything you want in terms of amusing embarrassments, satisfying swearing, and fine comedy moments, but Morris does a great job of balancing everything out with a more serious central strand exploring loss and how to keep moving forward when the destination ahead seems to have nothing there for you.

Zellweger continues to shine in the role that she'll be identified with for all time, and she seems natural and effortless onscreen in a way that seems to convey her own love for the character. Jankovic and Knodf are solid child actors, the former involved in more of the sequences that cause our heroine to get a red face, and everyone else onscreen, old or new, feels like a perfect addition to this (final?) chapter. Woodall is helped by the fact that he has scenes that show off the affect he has on others around him, especially in a sequence that has him arriving late to a party just in time to act the hero, Ejiofor is playing the typical hard-shelled individual with the soft centre, and both Firth and Grant continue to be delightful in their respective roles. Emma Thompson, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Shirley Henderson, Neil Pearson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Joanna Scanlan, Celia Imrie, Nico Parker, Claire Skinner, Sarah Solemani, Josette Simon, and Leila Farzad are all wonderful, not one of them letting the side down, and I'm probably still forgetting one or two people I will later kick myself for not mentioning. It's a shame that Isla Fisher is only seen for mere seconds, and I suspect some of her work may have ended up on the cutting-room floor, but such an abundance of riches makes that much easier to accept.

I went into this hoping to enjoy it. I came out of the cinema knowing that it was easily my second favourite of the foursome. I can imagine many other people will feel the same. What could have felt lazy and by-the-numbers instead turns out to be as surprising, in terms of the themes being satisfactorily explored, as it is satisfying and eager to meet all expectations. The only downside is that I would now welcome another cinematic journey through a new Bridget diary, but I also know that this is just about the most perfect ending that we could all have wished for.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

I was very confident, very confident, waving everyone away who tried to warn me off this movie. Because it couldn't be any worse than some of the other Home Alone movies, could it? Could it?

The simple answer, which I can put at the start of this review, is no. Home Sweet Home Alone is not worse than some of the other Home Alone movies. It's also not very good though, and it's not very good in ways that are quite mind-boggling.

Here's the plot. Archie Yates plays Max Mercer, a child who ends up home alone while his family have headed to Tokyo. He is also the prime suspect when Jeff (Rob Delaney) and Pam McKenzie (Ellie Kemper) lose a valuable doll that could see the end of their current money woes. Jeff and Pam believe that Max has stolen the doll, and Max is under the impression that Jeff and Pam are looking to kidnap him. Excessive snacking, lessons about home being where the heart is, and booby-traps are very soon the order of the day.

Written by Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day, and directed by Dan Mazer, there's nothing inherently wrong with the people making this movie. Their backgrounds tend to be based more in content such as SNL, Ali G, and other non-kid-friendly fare, but I didn't see their names and immediately worry about the film they would deliver. Perhaps I should have. The direction isn't terrible, not really, but the script is poor, especially when you consider some of the plotting that makes the viewing experience a difficult and unrewarding one.

Never mind though, because I really like Delaney and Kemper. So that should be a plus, right? It is, but not enough of a plus to make up for the big negatives. Delaney and Kemper aren't used well here, although I hate to think how much I would have hated this film with other people in their roles. Aisling Bea could have been another good bit of casting, but playing the mother of the child left at home alone simply leads to her feeling like a very poor replacement for the superb Catherine O'Hara. There are some other people doing perfectly fine work here, but that work is overshadowed by the central performance from Yates. I don't want to spend much time ripping apart the performance of a young child, and Yates is definitely not helped by a script that makes his character almost completely unlikeable throughout (when he isn't recreating moments from the first Home Alone movie). All I will say is that his character is one of the most irritating youngsters I have seen onscreen in a very long time, and I spent most of the movie hoping that he would end up caught in one of his own traps.

There's an argument to be made for this movie being even less deserving of your time because of how it seems to invert so much of what made the original film a holiday classic, and there's absolutely nothing here that actually feels good enough to warrant this reworking of the concept, but a level of general technical competence, as well as the presence of both Delaney and Kemper, stop it from being among the worst of the worst. It's really bad though, and this is coming from someone who often tries to see the best in every movie I watch.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

Here we go again. With no disrespect intended to anyone involved, Bridget Jones's Baby is a sequel that feels like you have to see it out of a sense of obligation, as opposed to it being something you were really waiting on for years. It's much like the second film, which was a pale imitation of the first film, and that is both a positive and negative.

In case you couldn't tell from the vague title, Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger again, of course) finds herself pregnant. It usually takes two to tango but Bridget, as different as ever, has decided to complicate matters. The baby may have been fathered by Mark (Colin Firth again) OR a handsome American chap named Jack (Patrick Dempsey). Deciding not to tell either man about her lack of certainty, Bridget goes through her pregnancy while trying to keep her secret. Thankfully, she has a very accommodating doctor (Emma Thompson) willing to help her. But the truth will need to come out eventually. I know what viewers will be hoping to see happen by the time the end credits roll, but is that the kind of happy ending that Bridget can get?

Look, I've reviewed the first and second movie already, so the easiest thing to do here would be to copy bits from those reviews and place them here. The main characters of Bridget and Mark are essentially the same, just a bit older, and the comedy generally works, even during the times when it seems that Bridget is about to crumble under the weight of her situation.

Director Sharon Maguire, who helmed the first film, returns, and she has a better feel for the tone and characters than Beeban Kidron seemed to in the previous outing. It helps that she's working from a better script too, this time Helen Fielding and Dan Mazer are joined in the writing department by Thompson (which MAY help to explain why she almost steals the show with her few scenes but, then again, Thompson is just always that good). There aren't too many moments that are outright hilarious but there are plenty of little chuckles supplied in between the few bigger laughs.

Zellweger and Firth know their characters very well, and have always felt like perfect casting in those roles, so they slip back into things with ease. Dempsey is a great addition, considerate and caring and seemingly perfect in a way that very much irritates Firth's character, and I just mentioned Thompson almost stealing the show. The rest of the cast crop up for moments that show their characters are still around, Hugh Grant aside, so you once again get to see Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Sally Phillips, Shirley Henderson, James Callis, Jessica Hynes, Neil Pearson, Joanna Scanlan, and a few other familiar faces.

Still not as good as the first movie, this is a slight step up from the second film and at least provides a better ending to the Bridget Jones saga, as far as I'm concerned. I hope they can now leave these characters were they are. But I know I'll end up watching the next movie if they decide to make another one.

7/10

You can buy the boxset here.
Americans can buy it here.

Prime Time: Ali G Indahouse (2002)

Maybe it's the passing of time mellowing my attitude to what I once viewed as crimes against cinema. Maybe it's because I have actually now seen more movies that ARE crimes against cinema (including at least two feature films for British comedy creations that were nowhere near as much fun as Ali G). Whatever the reason, I decided to rewatch Ali G Indahouse this week for the first time in over a decade, expecting to put myself through some pain, and I did not hate it.

The plot sees a number of ridiculous coincidences leading to Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) becoming an elected MP. For everything he says and does that could be disastrous, or at least a major social faux pas, he somehow goes up in the estimation of Joe Public. But Ali doesn't realise that he is being used as a pawn by a scheming politician (Charles Dance) who wants to oust and replace the Prime Minister (Michael Gambon).

The history of small-screen British comedy being adapted into feature films is a troubled one. For every success you can name at least half a dozen failures (I'm not going to name them here, some people may become curious and seek them out, which will make me feel guilty for their temporary madness). Ali G Indahouse at least manages, thanks to the script by Cohen and Dan Mazer, to give fans of the character a lot of what they will enjoy. His constant attempts to be cool hide a very obvious lack of cool, but his own lack of self-awareness almost manages to make him still seem . . . cool, when he's not being a complete moron.

Director Mark Mylod may have a filmography overflowing with TV work but he does a decent enough job here, especially as he obviously has to work within the constraints of the silly plot. The fake start is a bit annoying, perhaps more so because we've now seen the big cinematic opening segue into something smaller and more intimate in many other TV-to-feature openings, but it's decently paced, energised by a very enjoyable soundtrack (equal parts genuinely good music and dollops of cheese), and helped by the fact that luminaries such as Dance and Gambon are very willing to go along with even the more juvenile gags.

And that's the biggest problem here. I laughed quite a few times, to my own surprise, but none of the scenes worked that were supposed to provide the biggest guffaws (Ali G handcuffed to some railings that are being cleaned by a blind man, the moment our main character meets the Queen, naughtiness in the residence of the PM that is heard by the guests while the PM is in a meeting with a guest, and more). Yet there were enough smaller chuckles, often just single lines of dialogue, that kept me amused enough throughout.

Cohen doesn't act, he creates characters that he completely embodies with ease. So, despite the varying quality of the gags here, he's consistently excellent in the role. People who forget that Martin Freeman is in this should give it a rewatch to remind themselves that . . . Martin Freeman is in this. He's a friend to Ali G, as is Tony Way, and is arguably even more ridiculous and desperate than our lead. Dance and Gambon suffer their indignities with aplomb, Kellie Bright is good as the famous Julie, referred to at almost every opportunity by Ali G as "me Julie", and Rhona Mitra has a small role as an attractive temptress helping Dance to reach his end goal.

If you don't like the character of Ali G then you're not going to like this film. If you do like the character of Ali G then you still may not like this film. It's not ever going to be essential viewing, or anyone's favourite comedy, but it's not the travesty that some might lead you to believe, especially compared to some British comedies that we've been subjected to in the past few years.

5/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can pick it up here.

Office Christmas Party (2016)

The office Christmas party, eh. It's an annual tradition for many. The one night of the year when everyone drinks too much, some embarrassing truths are voiced, folk photocopy various body parts, the dancing varies from the sublime to the ridiculous, and occasionally someone goes up to the big boss and says or does something so insane that they are never seen in the workplace again.

With all that in mind, it's surprising that we haven't had a big Christmas comedy based around that tradition before now. Am I forgetting any other candidates? If so, I am happy to stand corrected (and can only blame my failing memory). What isn't surprising is that this particular film tries to take the premise and use it as the structure upon which to hang a bawdy comedy along the lines of The Night Before, Horrible Bosses, and We're The Millers. I mention the first because it's Christmassy, obviously, but the other two are perhaps more appropriate, mainly because of how they use Jennifer Aniston and benefit from a selection of great supporting players.

Jason Bateman stars as Josh Parker, a man who is working for a tech firm that might not survive beyond Christmas. The boss (T. J. Miller) has been ordered by his sister (Jennifer Aniston) to avoid throwing any kind of party, and to not give anyone a Christmas bonus. Which means, of course, that he instead decides to try winning over a potential new client by throwing the biggest, wildest Christmas party ever and letting people win their cash bonuses inside a money tornado machine. This is a nightmare for the uptight head of HR (Kate McKinnon), and soon leads to a potential nightmare for everyone else, when they realise that their jobs are on the line and their boss may not have taken the best approach to guaranteeing that the business remains solvent.

Josh Gordon and Will Speck directed this, both also responsible for the highly enjoyable Blades Of Glory, and the script was written by Dan Mazer, Justin Malen, and Laura Solon. Two directors and three writers. But those three writers were developing a script from a story that was created by THREE OTHER WRITERS, apparently. How hard is it to throw together some big laughs for a comedy that is set during an office Christmas party? Very hard, it would seem, because there aren't many big laughs here.

The film isn't actually bad, and I had lots of little chuckles all the way through, but there aren't really any moments that stand out. No one memorable scene that you can talk about with friends as a shared favourite moment. And that's a great shame, considering the people involved. Hell, there's even a fleeting dance off between two characters that should have been a highlight, but is instead too short and safe to prompt anything more than a wry smile.

Bateman does his usual thing here, and has it locked down as usual. Miller is someone I like, but I could absolutely see him as being the grating type, so be warned. Olivia Munn also plays one of the main characters, but she's really not onscreen for anything more than plot progression and to motivate the growth that we expect to see in Bateman's character, who spends a lot of time being told how he always plays things too safe. Aniston is also ill-served by the script, although that comes from her being the nominal villain of the piece and having to play things that way as one-note as possible until the writers change things too late for anyone to really care. McKinnon is very funny, but I am pretty sure she can spin gold out of the most threadbare material at this point, and Courtney B. Vance, Rob Corddry, Vanessa Bayer, Randall Park, and Karan Soni are among the other wasted talents. Jillian Bell is a definite highlight, and the writers do well to bring her character in at just the right times.

It will do if you want a few laughs from something that isn't also drowning in sugary sweetness, but Office Christmas Party is certainly not bound to become a festive tradition. I doubt it will be remembered in a few years time, and that's no bad thing.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share