Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)

Written by CinemaSerf on January 2, 2024

I think to be fair, the television series that ended four years earlier had already recycled these scenarios once to often, so by the time we got to this there was actually very little room left to innovate with these well tired characters. The no longer very outrageous "Edina" (Jennifer Saunders) can't get her "blah blah blah" memoirs published and is running out of money whilst the Champagne swilling "Patsy" (Joanna Lumley) isn't much help. They go to one event run by "Magda" (Kathy Burke) and somehow Kate Moss ends up in the Thames. Accusations fly and soon our dynamic duo are on the run to the Cöte d'Azur to avoid charges of murder! Once there we enjoy the usual drug/drink fuelled party and casino humour with some guest appearances from the likes of Barry Humphries, Lulu and finally Marcia Warren as their possible route back to the lives they used to live - and we used to laugh at. Mandie Fketecher has managed to amass a fairly impressive catalogue of super models, the odd British B-lister and a few other familiar faces but I found the joke just tired. Long-suffering daughter "Saffy" (Julia Sawalha) is just too used to all her mother's daft antics by now, mother (June Whitfield) and her disdainful looks have rather lost their sting and the usually lively "Bubbles" (Jane Horrocks) is just under-used as the lacklustre story skirts the realms of farce. They even updated the "Wheels on Fire" at the end... Sorry, this is nobody's finest work and rather turned the Bolly of 1992 into a distinctly flat Cava in 2016.