Lucky Break DVD

Advantages: Good cast, excellent characterisation, perfect casting, James Nesbitt's sexy accent!
Disadvantages: a bit short

...– one of which was Lucky Break. I had never heard of it, but my other half had, explaining it was a British film directed by Peter Cattaneo (of The Full Monty fame) and starred Cold Feet’s James Nesbitt. It sounded good, so we paid our money and went in. We weren’t disappointed. It is what I would call a gentle comedy. You won’t be rolling round the aisles in uncontrollable laughter, but you will chuckle, audibly. The thing ...
...My one small criticism of Lucky Break is that it seemed shorter than I would have liked. The characters all seemed to work so well together, the film could easily have been thirty minutes longer. In fact, this sort of film would translate well to the small screen too, with a TV series in a similar vein. I certainly left the cinema wanting more of those wonderfully engaging characters. It was nice to see Christopher Plummer, famous for his stern ... Read review

Advantages: Solid acting, well-executed
Disadvantages: If you're expecting another "Full Monty", you might be disappointed

This is an escapist comedy in the most literal sense of the word. Jimmy Hands and best mate Rudy are childhood friends who grow up to be totally inept criminals. When they bungle a bank job, they are both banged up in bleak Long Rudford prison. However, they don’t intend to stay locked up for long. All they have to do is get inside the disused chapel and make a break for it. Of course, nothing is ever that simple and the only way they can get ...
...about Horatio Nelson. Things are complicated further when Jimmy finds himself falling for the lovely prison support officer, Annabel Sweep. This film comes from the team that brought us “The Full Monty”. Obviously believing the formula of the first film to be a recipe for success, director Peter Cattaneo has followed it to the letter. Once more we have a bunch of (mostly) harmless blokes who are down on their luck and struggling to escape ... Read review

Advantages: it's not terrible
Disadvantages: it's not very good either

The movie is the first from director Peter Cattaneo since he helmed the very successful but vastly over-rated (IMO) “The Full Monty”. Why the wait? Was he waiting for a decent script, well if he was he obviously got rather bored and went with the script for “Lucky Break”. It a romantic comedy and thematically it is not dissimilar to “The Full Monty” having a group of men in an adverse situation having to challenge ...
...a release, in this case quite literally as they are all in prison. The story has Jimmy Hands (played by James Nesbitt, from TV’s “Cold Feet”) and Rudy (Lennie James, who he?) as two very ineffectual criminals who following an armed bank raid end up in prison, as is the law of our land. Jimmy has a bit of the Steve McQueen’s about him and almost before his first slopping out he has wound up the head screw and constantly finds ... Read review

Advantages: Good fun, good characters
Disadvantages: At times the script seems on the lazy side

...to refer to that. Lucky Break is bound to generate comparisons, and consequently it's bound to be seen as a slight disappointment. There are similarities - a group of men, in most cases desperate men, doing stupid things, making fools of themselves, with a big dream. There's also a will they won't they suspense in each movie - in The Full Monty it was will they or won't they take all their kit off?, (well, according to most of the women I knew who ...
...Lucky Break it's will they or won't they manage to break out of jail? (I'm not going to tell you the answer, don't worry) So, in both movies, the big theme is escape from the dud life that seems to be your lot… But if you forget about the Full Monty, and give the film a chance in its own right - I think most people will think it's a good film. I enjoyed Lucky Break, but I don't think it is quite as good as The Full Monty, nor will it be as big ... Read review

Advantages: Likeable characters, light-hearted (ish) fun, good moments.
Disadvantages: Very slight, not enough good moments, too similar to The Full Monty

There's an old saying that seems quite apt at this point. "Stick with what you know". It's not that the makers of this movie haven't, the problem is that they did - and rigidly! From Peter Cattaneo, the director of 'The Full Monty', comes this knockabout tale of redemption, set in a prison and starring James Nesbitt (Cold Feet) as Jimmy (imaginative...), an in-and-out of prison failed armed robber. On his arrival, he rubs the typical sadistic prison ...
...revolving around his time in solitary), and ends up in front of the governor, played to hilarious effect by Christopher Plummer (The Sound Of Music, Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead). He also meets prison rehabilitation officer Annabelle, played by Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense, The Postman) and hmmm... I wonder if the only handsome man in prison will fall for this beauteous woman... I wonder... After making friends again with his bank-robber ... Read review