Mindhorn's purposefully cheesy devices landed with rip-roaring comedic success.The acting in this film was spot on because the actors had amazing command of physical humour and timing and the script didn't scrimp on funnies! Visual comedy is a really intelligent and inventive form of humour and the mark of a good script. Mindhorn has some brilliant moments of this and you can clearly tell from watching the film that the art department had a whale of a time! l also thoroughly enjoyed the use of garish colour in this film there was a strong use of carefully considered yet brazenly bold costumes and set. A piece of art as well as a good comedy! I'm sure I could pick faults but because I laughed the entire way through I don't think I need to.

would have in an American version he decided to return to the Isle of man and become a detective. Imagine further more that the star of this show became a big "I AM" for a while not at all like William Shatner thinking he was too big for his own show and managed to alienate most of his co-stars and went off to Hollywood to become a star and. . . . .Didn't. So there is the back story on wacky British comedy Mindhorn; and where those original protagonists are now and how they would react when thrown back together is the meat of the situational and sometimes slapstick comedy that ensues. The plot is really just a vehicle to make that happen but for those of you that think it's really important maybe you have Austrian blood in you and Tut if someone crosses the road when the little red Man is lit even when there isn't a car in sight then, there is one, it envolves a young man with special educational needs, suspected of a crime, who believes Mindhorn was a true life drama and will only speak to detective Mindhorn. He therefore has to be brought back to the island who's thespians and population alike he has alienated by his pretentious and high handed past behaviour in order to bring the suspect in. His career having gone no where, the actor in question Richard Thorncroft played by co writer Julian Barrat is desperate for some "profile" and doesn't take a lot of persuasion to put the bionic eye-patch back on. It's not a truly original comedic genre, following closely in the footsteps of David Brent and Alan Partridge without being quite as numbingly cringeworthy but does add in a good deal more sight gaggery and actual joke jokes until there's really something for everyone. It may be if you are an Office fan this will be nowhere near hard core embarrassing enough for you and if you're a big Last of the Summer Wine conservative sleepy locals react to odd-balls stuff this will be far too harsh in places, I have appreciated both and this has elements of both in it. Simon Farnaby, or the Stupid Deaths man as my son calls him gives an "untrustworthy foreigner" performance of the type British actors in America have made their own to the point of there having been absolutely no suspense in a US action suspense film for over 20 years IT'S THE British GUY!!! I laughed a lot in this but deliberately watched it with friends of both sexes all in our late 40's and 50's feeling it would benefit from that shared knowledge of the programmes and attitudes of the time and if did communal viewing builds the laughs as the film progressess, a couple of throwaway sexist lines are breathtakingly funny, but I know some of my ex-pupils have found it excellent as well, The plot is silly and ridiculous so if that is really important to you you'd be better off not watching than doing so and then boring the rest of us telling us how you can't understand how we didn't spot all the holes in it that ruined the film; We did, we just didn't give a rat's arse. So I'd happily recommend it to anyone old enough to remember The Professionals

his method acting, and tries to rekindle an old romance.........I think to appreciate the film just that little bit more, you really have to be of a certain age when these awfully cheesy police shows were rife on the T.V. back in the eighties. Granted, the U.K. never had anything as over the top as Mindhorn, but shows like Dempsey and Makepeace, C.A.T.S eyes, and Lovejoy were very tongue in cheek.You could really imagine Mindhorn being a staple of Saturday night T.V right after the football results were read out at five in the afternoon, while all the family were sitting having their tea.But I wonder just how many celebrities who made it big very quickly and then tried to make it big in Hollywood and failing miserably does Barratt reference? The obvious ones are Coronation Street's own Chris Quentin who famously played 'reporter 2' in Robocop 2, or Ali Osman from Eastenders who went there, came back, and co-starred in Carry On Columbus.And then there's Robert Lindsay, but he came back and made My family.It's a truly wonderful concept, and there are times when the film is laugh out loud funny, especially when Simon Callow makes an appearance. But Thorncroft doesn't really feel like an original character, as at times he reminded me of David Brent, and even Alan Partridge.But the film never outstays it's welcome, and Barratt is self deprecating enough to make Thorncroft funnier than he should be.But if you find the first ten minutes utterly hilarious, especially the Mindhorn opening credits, you'll find lots to love about this.