Starring: Brendan O’Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Eilish O’Carroll

Genre: Comedy

Agnes Brown (Brendan O’Carroll) has owned a fruit n veg stall in Dublin’s Moore Street market run by her family for centuries. However Mrs. Brown and her dysfunctional family must fight against the Russian Oligarch and the corrupt politician who are determined to close all the market stalls and open up a new, state of the art, shopping centre.

For reasons that are most certainly beyond me, Mrs. Brown’s Boys is an incredibly popular TV series and so for that reason a big screen version was always going to be inevitable. Love it or hate it (I hate it), each 28 minute episode of the TV series is a quick fire succession of lowest common denominator gags, but they do come at a rapid rate. However, with Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie the challenge of sustaining that for 95 minutes while incorporating all the narrative necessities required for a feature length running time has proves Brendan O’Carroll and his family to be very much out of their depth.

So we get attempts at emotion and character arcs that completely misfire while O’Carroll misguidedly tries to keep some of the unique formats of the TV series such as keeping in outtakes and breaking the fourth wall which feel horrendously out of place. The visual format of the film and the extended spaces between gags and jokes also emphasises the fact that the cast are not actors; their awkward line delivery and uneasy screen presence only making the whole experience even less funny. Just like in the TV show, they all look like they have tremendous fun making the thing, but it only makes it harder for us to watch.

Just like in the TV show, the jokes themselves are often cheap, tacky or racist. This is especially the case with a new character called Mr. Wang (also played by O’Carroll); this new character is unbelievably lazy in just how racist and stereotyped it is. It is jokes and characters like this that makes Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie actually goes beyond offensive and, just like so many other parts of the film that are done so badly, it is difficult to be offended simply because O’Carroll and co just embarrass themselves so much. To be offended would almost be some kind of compliment or given a smidgen of credit to writing and acting that just should simply be ignored, and then hopefully O’Carroll and co will just vanish from our screens for good!

In some ways the film is an improvement on the TV show; while the rapid fire delivery of the TV show is truly abrasive viewing, ultimately the film is on the other hand just extremely boring. It is hard to be annoyed by the actual film or have any reaction except plain boredom. So, at least Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie is not quite at the vile levels of Keith Lemon the Film, but it is still truly abysmal. I guess a true barometer of how good this film is may not be the opinion of someone like me who hates the TV series, but the many that like the TV series but have not liked the film. Then again, it took £4.3million in its opening weekend. I hope all those that paid to see this tripe at the cinema truly regret it, and if many of those actually didn’t regret it then this may well be the beginning of the collapse of Western civilization!

Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie may not be as infuriating as the TV series, but its ‘humour’ is just as poor; it is just a dull and humourless 95 minutes showing the cast and crew to be truly out of their depth. It is simply a film to be avoided and ignored that deserves no reaction.

2/10