Gervais'......The Invention Of Lying (1 Star Empire Magazine)

C

Chumpy1970

New member
I must admit Gervais on the big screen does not appeal. He's fine in comedy programmes like the Office and Extras where he has written his own part but he's not really a good actor. His acting skills are very limited and he lacks versatility.

This is why he can't do accents and never appears to be very different on screen. There are others in the past who have carved out careers with limited acting skills (always playing a similar character) but usually those people were picked for their looks - Roger Moore springs to mind. He was always charming but never a great actor. I'm sure other people on this forum can name a few.

Gervais would be better off sticking to writing which is where his real talent lies.
 
Based on all the others reviews I've seen, one star is ludicrously harsh.

The same reviewer gave 3 stars to this, which cannot possibly be better than The Invention of Lying.
 
I wish I could reclaim the 2 hours I lost watching this movie. Please for the love of the man in the sky dont put yourselves through this. Its too late for me, but you guys can be saved. Hell, dont even buy the dvd, just wait for it to come on telly if you REALLY want to watch it.
 
This is why in his and Stephen Merchant's film, out next year, he isn't the main star in it. They know they're good writers but that if Gervais was the star it would be just like what they've done already.
 
I'm a big fan of Ricky but this was just so mediocre I found nothing redeemable about it. I havn't been this restless to leave the cinema since Pirates of the Caribbean 3

1/5
 
Bit of an obvious statement, but just because a reviewer rated it one way, doesn't mean a publication as a whole thinks the same. Companies employ more than one person and they all have different views.
 
love ricky gervais, this just wasn't funny though

the worst thing about it though was the constant product placement for budweiser - anyone else notice it? and to a lesser extent, pizza hut

was terrible i thought
 
I'm intrigued now. I won't be going to see it because I just generally don't go to the cinema often at all but it looks good from the adverts.

How come it's so bad?
 
That review just doesn't make sense when compared with all of the others that I've read. I've already seen enough funny bits in the trailers and clips shown when Gervais has been interviewed to justify better than a 1 star rating.

He seems more concerned with picking plot holes than talking about the characters and situations. Aslong the holes aren't glaringly obvious (and from the ones he mentions in his review they're not) and ruin the film then I couldn't care less and I'm sure that many others will feel the same. To me it seems like it's written by a failed writer or director desperate to pick holes in other peoples work to show how good he is.

Looking through other reviews of his I'm not going to really trust his opinion. He said that In The Loop was 'funny' but that it was an 'empty, glib' humour and 'not very ambitious'.
He also gave Be Kind Rewind 4 out of 4!
 
The acting is a at times a good as a student film back in my college days...the plot holes are everywhere...its just not very funny...some of the characters are just very one dimensional or totally unlikeable...some of the actors have no chemistry...I could go on.

The best part was a cameo with Barry from Eastenders, and that was only funny because I knew who he was, not the scene itself.
I genuinely avoid being negative about films, because I just love going to see films at the cinema, even if theyre average...but this was one of the low points (other films I've disliked this much; Pirates of the Carribean 3, Open Water, Norbit...)
 
Total Film gave it three. I have been a Total Film reader or a while as I find Empire a bit too elitist and up its own arse for me. Saying that I never bother allowing some stranger to tell me if a film is worth seeing anyway.
 
One star from Empire?
That sounRAB a bit unnecessarily harsh.
It's doing reasonably okay on Rotten Tomatoes with 57%, so I wonder if there's some kind of petty prejudice behind Empire's rating?
 
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