Starring: Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Craig Fairbrass

Genre: Comedy/ Musical /Thing

While on tour in Fiji, OAP rockers Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt (themselves) witness and film a murder at the hands a local mob boss called Wilson (Jon Lovitz) and reveal an illegal human organ trafficking operation. With the local Fijian mafia wanting them dead, Francis, Rick and their manager Simon (Fairbrass) are framed for murder and then have the Fijian police force after them. Now they must prove their innocence before either being arrested for murder or killed by the local mafia, or will this finally be the end for Status Quo? (There are definitely arguments for and against that being a good thing).

Well, The Beatles and Elvis had a go (quite successfully) and so did The Spice Girls (maybe not quite so much), and now for some bizarre reason in their twilight years, OAP rockers Status Quo are having a go at making a musical film. For the fans there are new songs and all the ‘classics’ played throughout the narrative. Though that feels way too much of a complementary word for what is essentially a feature length music video. It does feel like they are making the plot up as they go along with action ‘set pieces’ just ending for no reason are solutions that defy logic.

The dialogue itself is pretty atrocious with the laughs predominantly coming more AT than WITH as Parfitt and Rossi continue to embarrass themselves. Despite being ridiculously old, these two still jump through windows and out run the bad guys while wearing brain haemorrhage inducing shirts and delivering terrible one liners, always to the tune of some annoying catchy guitar based ‘Quo tune. We are even treated to a music video making it a film within a film at that point, proving not only just how much of an absolute mess Bula Quo is, but sometimes a film alone can provide a more disconcerting trip than any hard drug.

That all said, there are far worse films out there, and it is pretty obvious everyone is enjoying themselves. The tone is always with the emphasis on unpretentious fun, and all the pictures on the front cover give an advanced warning of exactly what you are going to get. Parfitt and Rossi are not actors, but are more than happy to mock themselves. The always consistent Craig Fairbrass still looks the part and Laura Aikman as the conveniently named Caroline erases all memory of her role in the horrific Keith Lemon The Film with some good comic timing. Not to mention the Fijian scenery is breathtaking. If you want something very easy to watch, then Bula Quo is just about passable (though the music maybe not so much).

In what is painfully silly and an absolute mess of a film, Bula Quo does pretty much what it says on the tin and then some. If you can stick Rossi and co’s music, it’s extremely silly tone will just about entertain enough. Who knows, if this had a good script it could have actually been a really fun caper.

4/10