Keith Lemon: The Film

Released: 24th August 2012

Directed by: Paul Angunawela

Starring: Leigh Francis, Laura Aikman, Kelly Brook

Certificate: 15

Reviewer: Luke Walkley

Fresh off the popularity of his ‘Celebrity Juice’ television series, Leigh Francis decided to take his creation Keith Lemon to the big screen.

Keith is a down on his luck business man who literally gets handed a lifeline when he comes into the possession of a ‘revolutionary’ mobile phone. With the help of ‘The Fixer’ aka Verne Troyer he rebrands the phone and becomes an overnight billionaire, forgetting about his previous life and the debts he owed and focusing instead on his new lifestyle.

I must admit to not being a fan of Francis’ style of comedy, his previous creations were a lot more imaginative, series such as Bo Selecta had its merits. However, having viewed several episodes of Celebrity Juice and not being overly fussed, it would be unfair to allow my preconceptions cloud my final verdict of the film. Therefore I went into the film with a clear mind and hoped for the best…Big mistake…

A get-rich-quick story provides an excuse for Lemon to run into C-List celebrities and ensure there are as many jokes about their ‘fame’ as the running time allows. Gary Barlow and David Hasselhoff are perhaps the two biggest names but even their cameos are pointless at best and painful at worse. Not to mention the picks from the bargain basket of British celebrities…not least the hideously unfunny Jedward.

Every other line of dialogue from Lemon is an innuendo and every other action is sexual. The inclusion of Kelly Brook as his obsession becomes tired after about 30 seconds, there is no acting on display as she plays ‘Kelly Brook’ when someone whose film career has spanned to the heights of ‘Piranha 3D’ is your leading lady, you are in trouble.

It’s unfair to completely trash a film, no matter how bad. So I’ll take a look at the positives. It’s running time clocks in around 85 minutes, so less than an hour and a half of your time can be spent on it if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself watching it. It’s a contender for a number of awards also, most will be Razzies, but awards nonetheless. Well that’s it for the ‘positives’…

It is really a sad state of affairs when this comes to be classed as entertainment. It’s ‘Comedy’ in its lowest, smuttiest form and unfortunately that will bring in those who watch the show religiously. Sitting on IMDB with a score of 2.8/10 it’s clearly not only this reviewer who is of this opinion. This cash cow has been milked dry and the result is a shambolic excuse for a film.