Sex Lives Of The Potato Men (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Disliked it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Unmemorable
Special Effects	Weak
How does it compare to similar films?	Weak

Advantages:	some funny lines
Disadvantages:	extremely weak plot, uninteresting, disgrace to British films

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

*** Warning: This review contains quite a bit of the plot ***

I'm not the biggest fan in the world of British films. Don't get me wrong there are some classics like 'Notting Hill' and 'About A Boy', but generally I find the production and storylines not quite up to scratch. So when I heard about 'Sex Lives Of The Potato Men', I wasn't exactly dying to see it.

Written and Directed by first timer Andy Humphries, Sex Lives of The Potato Men promises to be the ultimate British men's film packed with plenty of humour and sex.

*** The Plot ***

Dave, Ferris, Jeremy and Tolly all work at a potato warehouse. Dave is married with a kid and Ferris is married but separated and living with his mother in Law. Tolly has an obsession with jam meanwhile Jeremy has an obsession with an ex. Follow all four men as they embark on a quest to spice up their sex lives.

*** My opinion on ... ***

Was I wrong not to want to see this film? Was it funny? Was it worth wasting a rental over? Here is my view on every aspect of the film from it's enjoyability to it's music. Hope you enjoy!

1) It's Story

I don't know what I expected with this film to be honest. The title pretty much sums up everything about the story. They are a bunch of potato men leading not very exciting lives and having sex as much as possible or in some cases, whenever they can find someone willing to have sex with them. Each man has his own little story and each one is as meaningless as the other. A lot of it was downright sick and twisted and I don't think many people would have found it entertaining. An example of how sick the film is, is Tolly and his jam obsession. Apparently when he was with his ex, he used to like licking jam off her intimate areas. Now that she's gone he is trying to recreate the taste of her intimate areas using jam and fish in a sandwich and satisfying himself with it. Really not nice to watch and not particularly funny either!

To me this was an extremely weak plot that really wasn't leading anywhere or at least not anywhere exciting. It might have sounded better when they were planning it and writing down their idea's but when it got to the actual film being released I think Andy Humphries will have been really disappointed.

2) How easy it was to relate to the characters

* Dave (played by Johnny Vegas) *

Dave was basically a bored husband. He was young(ish), tied down and not getting much action. He wasn't particularly active and seemed to have no interest in anything apart from sex and even then he didn't show much enthusiasm in it when he got it. I think some guys may be able to relate to him. He definitely came across as very British and brought out how a lot of guys in Britain are. The women watching the film will relate more to his wife than to him.

* Ferris (played by Mackenzie Cook) *

Ferris is quite dopey and has a thing going with his mother in law. Even though he doesn't like her he still can't resist having sex with her. He's very submissive and comes across quite weak. I'm not sure how often it happens but no doubt there are other men across the country having the same problems as ferris so his character could be easy to relate to for some.

* Jeremy (played by Mark Gattis) *

Jeremy is quite freaky and has a slight 'fatal attraction' thing going on. He is overly obsessed with a girl he dated briefly and shows this through stalking, dog napping and constantly bombarding her with messages. I would be worried if anybody found his character easy to relate to but worriedly it does happen.

* Tolly (played by Dominic Coleman) *

As mentioned earlier Tolly is obsessed with oral sex. But not just plain oral, it has to include jam. He's single and missing his ex's intimate areas so his quest is to now recreate the taste through fish and jam. Now I don't think many guys will do this and to me it was quite sick to watch but people do have some strange fetishes so I can see how his character could be easy to relate to.

So looking back on it, as weird as the characters seemed at the time, their basic characters are actually quite easy to relate to. Quite worrying if you ask me!

3) Cast Performances

I wasn't impressed by any of the cast performances, though if I had to choose a favourite it would be Mackenzie Cook. It was easy to see that he had experience as an actor more than the other three and his performance did outshine everyone elses. I don't think his acting skills were tested that much here though and I bet he really regrets starring in it now. Other films you might have caught Mackenzie in include 'Pirates of the Carribbean' and 'Finding Neverland'. He's starred in quite a few films to date but most people may recognize him from the popular television series 'The Office' as 'Gareth Keenan'.

Johnny Vegas was just like himself only less interesting. Sometimes Johnny can be funny and his face expressions in the film sometimes livened things up a bit but not for long. He didn't seem interested in his role and it didn't really seem like he wanted to be there. I think they made his character a bit too passive and that made him uninteresting to watch. I think if Johnny does have any acting skills they definitely weren't shown here.

Mark Gattis was ok. He was believable as a stalker and weirdo but it still wasn't a strong performance that made me go 'wow'. I think his character had one of the strongest storylines and that's maybe why he seemed to do better than other cast members such as Johnny. I haven't been put off watching him in other films if he appears in any. He has starred in other films such as 'Bright Young Things', 'Birthday Girl' and 'Shaun Of The Dead (voice over)'. Personally I've never seen him in any other film so I cannot compare his performance here to any of his previous ones.

Dominic Coleman seemed to have more brief scenes than any other main character so it's difficult to say whether or not he's a fantastic actor. He did OK but nothing spectacular. The only thing we really found out about him is that his character likes jam. I suppose you could say he played the part of someone obsessed with something quite well. He came across realistic and believable. He hasn't starred in a lot of films before this but some you may recognize him from include 'Large' and 'Round'. I know Large is another British film that wasn't great either so it seems he tends to follow a pattern. Lets hope he gets to star in better British films next time.

To sum up I think the script mainly let some of the main cast down. I don't think Johnny Vegas will have much of a film career though; I think he'll be better off sticking to radio rather than TV. The performances weren't bad but they weren't great either. If they had, had a better story to follow maybe they'd have been a bit more enthusiastic?

4) Production

Although there wasn't anything particularly bad about the production of the film it still had an 'amateur' feel to it. The lighting wasn't the best and sometimes the camera angle didn't seem right. It definitely wasn't the best production I've ever seen. The film seemed to be missing quite a lot and maybe that's why director Andy Humphries hasn't done anything since? I have seen a hell of a lot better and this just seems like an experiment that went wrong. The music that went with the film was mainly rock and quite heavy going. It annoyed me at times and felt unecessary. It gave the film even more of a guy feel though so men may like it, who knows?

5) Enjoyability

From the introduction it seemed a little promising. The music went really well and got a funky kind of feeling going. There were a couple of funny scenes and it seemed we might get a laugh out of it. Granted we did laugh but not side splitting laughter or even a lot of laughter, just a little laugh once in a while at one liners that were occasionally thrown in. The pace generally stayed the same throughout the film. Nothing much happened so it was hard to enjoy it that much. It didn't spark much enthusiasm from me nor my fiance and we found ourselves saying how terrible it was at least a dozen times throughout the film. It held our interest just about but for me I was mainly hoping it was going to pick up. I wouldn't say I absolutely hated it but there wasn't much about it you could actually like. A lot of the time I felt sick from some of the things it showed. How can anything that makes you feel sick be funny or indeed enjoyable?

6) Any Good Bits?

Despite the absolutely terrible, weak plot, there were occasionally one liners and scenes that were quite funny. They were what kept me watching and if only there had been more of them, it might have actually improved the film dramatically. And although Johnny Vegas didn't show his great acting skills here, he still came across as the comedian that he is in some parts. I definitely recommend to him that he stick to that as his day job!

7) Would I recommend it?

I'd have to say a definite no. I think this film will appeal more to actual 18 year old boys rather than 30 year old men or the kind of people that still find sex funny. The film does have a lot of sexual content in it which has been put across in quite a seedy and disgusting way. Some films put sex across as a beautiful thing to do or at least enjoyable but the kind of thing that was shown on here really isn't what I'm into! If you do insist on watching it be prepared to be disgusted and don't say you haven't been warned!

8) Any DVD Extra's?

Nope not one. If you are unlucky enough to shell out on this film you will notice there are no extra's. You can just have subtitles on or choose your scene. To be honest I'm not sure what extra's they could have put on. Maybe if they'd have done a blooper reel it might have made things a little bit better? Apart from that I wouldn't be interested in any other extra's anyway.

*** Summary ***

Whatever you do, save yourself the hassle of renting/buying this. I've read many reviews after renting it and not many people have liked it. We can't all be wrong can we! I hope this review has been useful to you.

Aimee xxx