Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

When a minor character has the one funny bit out of the entire film, you know it wasn't written well. One line, out of the entire film, was funny.Bo and Marshall are especially terrible, thanks to the script. They shined in a prior bit, with the televangelism. Too bad they're given nothing of value to work with this time. Lumley is wonderful but she's given nothing funny to say or do. Even the bits she does have are often completely recycled. The entire thing seems like a long commercial for a film that is going to be made sometime in the future, when Saunders decides to care enough to work at it like she once did, long ago.I have written funnier (prototype) AbFab scripts myself in practically no time. How much time did Saunders put into this? 15 minutes?The format has nothing to do with the TV series. As I said, it's like a long commercial — a trailer masquerading as a movie. The filming is all very pretty and glamorous but nothing interesting happens. All the characters are looking back at themselves, obliquely, instead of charging forward into new development.Lumley clearly is begging for a vehicle for her enthusiasm and talent. I can write one; Saunders cannot. It's bizarre, too — because at her peak she was the better writer. The original series, except for the last episode or two, was so brilliant.Aside from the aforementioned singular funny line, which aged badly upon seeing the film a second time — there was one scene-stealing bit of body language humor from an even more minor character. Too bad that the scene collapsed into bad writing in short order.

I really don't understand all the complaints / negative reviews / low ratings. Maybe one has to be a true long-time fan of the TV Series - - From, as the kids once said, "back in the day." I can't imagine such fans - who have watched the show as it aired over the past 3 decades - would REALLY find this movie to be so bad that, as one reviewer put it, she/he walked out of the theatre (wasting $30+) after only 30 mins thinking, sarcastically, that there would be more laughs "at the local ambulance depot."I had been waiting for the movie for YEARS, as have thousands of fans, and when it finally came out I was so disappointed because of the reviews. I hadn't yet watched the movie, and was dreading it because of the negative reviews and comments. Then I watched it ... and was very pleasantly surprised. I take a lot into consideration when giving a 1 - 10 rating on IMDb; one of my considerations is - and I know it is rather vague - how the movie or TV show was "for what it is." For example, it is generally ridiculous to criticize an old scifi movie for bad special effects. One has to take into consideration factors such as the era, the budget, and more. AbFab The Movie is not scifi, obviously, but using similar methodology rating it for what it is, among other things, along with the jokes/humor, how it fits with the series, the acting, etc. ... And for me the movie was a 9. Yes, I'm biased as a long-time AbFab super fan and so, as I said earlier, maybe you have to be such a fan to appreciate the movie. That said, however, even in the case of someone who had never seen the TV show and knew nothing about Abfab ... I can't imagine that they would find the movie totally lacking in humor or merit. It's lighthearted entertainment ... never intended to be a masterpiece of cinema.

If this succeeds in anything, this big screen version of the 1990's British cult sitcom proves to me the ridiculousness of the fashion industry and the pretentious people who work in it. Leading ostentatious lives, these are the most absurd elements of society who thrive on drama and ridiculous trends. Jennifer Saunders and Joanne Lumley seem stuck in time which has marched on by and left them eternally corked. The entire family still lives together even though daughter Saffie obviously cannot stand her mother Edina. Now in her 90's, mother June Whitfield seems numbed by the absurdity of the situation. While funny on TV, Patsy and Edina seem out of their minds and just nasty in their big screen debut.Trying too hard to be gay and hip, that element of this film is overly obnoxious and stereotypical. They are cartoon characters in every way they can be. The premise of Patsy and Edina becoming notorious simply because they may or may not have been responsible for the accidental death of Kate Moss is ridiculous. Dizzy Bubbles wears the most absurd outfits with inflated hashtags on her top that I wanted to pop with that stupid selfie stick she carries around. The costumes seem like the aftermath of an explosion at "Wicked" backstage. With the trend of bringing back old shows either in TV or movie form, this should be the guide as to how not to do it. I found this almost instantly to be beyond crude and insipid.

I own every DVD of every AbFab show, and I still enjoy them today as I did when they were on BBC. I wish I could rate this a 10, but I am being extremely generous rating it a 6.What went wrong: Jennifer Saunders wrote a weak script devoid of the essence that made the show what it was in the 90s. It actually started out pretty good. It opens at a fashion catwalk show, and the stumbling duo make a funny entrance. The film kept up that tone until Kate Moss lands in the water. Then, it's like we are watching another movie. Saunders reverts to a strong story-line, and the movie begins to go south from there on. The original show was never so much about the story as it was about the interaction between the cast members, the situations they found themselves in, (like in the Courtroom after being busted for something usually relating to drugs) as well as the slapstick antics pulled off by the fidgety, head shaking Saunders and the tramp, her pal Lumley; both were on a 24 hour buzz from the 70s, consuming every drug in the universe 24/7 to the point where walking was a full time job. Of course we can't ever forget about Bubble (Edna's PA). I haven't decided whether she was under utilized in this installment, or out to lunch. Either way, it was disappointing to me, because she was one of my favorite characters on the TV show. I also thought Saunders overdid the Botox. She was almost expressionless and appeared to be plastic with little of her former energy. When she fell out of her car as she did a thousand times in the TV show, we laughed. Now, it looked like it hurt, and it seemed difficult for her to do. Perhaps she was actually too fat at this point in her life, to comfortably play her fat self character Edna.The direction by Mandie Fletcher was embarrassing to watch. The script played out so convoluted, and disjointed, it might have been directed by Barnum and Bailey. However, the HD cinematography was spectacular, colorful, and beautiful to watch; the wardrobe was glorious, and so were locations chosen for the film.Also on the plus side, it was great to see the old gang back together again, and a special shout out to June Whitfield, who at 92 years of age, gave the best performance of the lot, and had lost none of her character's essence. Her performance, along with Julia Sawalha's surprising singing abilities, were bonus surprises that I truly enjoyed. I really hate to see AbFab go out like this, but you reap what you sew, and Saunders fell a bit short of being a master seamstress in this attempt at a modern day AbFab.