Lucky Break [2001]
Average customer rating: 2 out of 5 stars
  • One thing going for it.
  • Entertaining
  • Surprisingly awful
 Lucky Break [2001]
Starring: James Nesbitt , Olivia Williams , Timothy Spall , Bill Nighy , and Lennie James
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Comedy All Comedy | Comedy | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Lucky Break Lucky Break
  2. Lawless Heart [2002] Lawless Heart [2002]
  3. Wall Of Silence Wall Of Silence
  4. House! [2000] House! [2000]
  5. Wild About Harry (2000) Wild About Harry (2000)

ASIN: B000069JG6
Release Date: 2003-07-14
Lucky Break [2001]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Peter Cattaneo's Lucky Break is a likable comedy which suffered by comparison with his earlier hit The Full Monty, but is attractive enough in its own terms. Charming incompetent bank robber Jimmy Hands (James Nesbitt), five years into a 12-year sentence, puts together an escape plan which exploits the desire of the stage-struck prison governor (Christopher Plummer) to see his musical about the life of Nelson performed. The plan gets ever more complicated as he finds himself needing to outwit an unpleasant thug who wants to supplant his original accomplices and wanting to wreck the career of a bullying prison officer and having to weigh the idea of escaping at all against his growing relationship with anger management trainer Annabel (Olivia Williams).

This is an intelligent caper film with some underlying seriousness to it; Jimmy comes slowly to realise that crime does involve mixing with some fairly unpleasant people. The backstage musical stuff--with its wonderfully fatuous ex-Cambridge director and a score just the right side of entire dreadfulness--is hilarious and the working out of the plot's convoluted central scam efficient. If there is an overall failure of tone, it comes from the clash between the farce elements and the bittersweet quality of the central relationship, as well as Timothy Spall's portrayal of the victimised Cliff.

On the DVD: Lucky Break is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 ratio and has Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The special features include a director's commentary, cast and crew interviews and a short "Making of" featurette. --Roz Kaveney

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars One thing going for it........2008-02-11

It's an okay for a rainy Saturday afternoon when nothing else is on type film. It's inoffensive.

There is one thing going for it though. If you're a fan of Julian Barratt, and even if you're not, this is a great find. He is the best thing in this film. He cracks me up. The 2 stars I've given it are both for him.

3 out of 5 stars Entertaining.......2007-11-13

Small-time crook Jimmy Hands fears his luck may have run out. After a botched bank robbery, Jimmy finds himself in prison. But his fortune turns when the warden asks Jimmy to recruit prisoners to act in a musical he's written and plans to stage. Realizing this offers the possibility of a perfect escape route, Jimmy and his cast run the risk of being caught in both the stage's spotlights and the prison's searchlights. It is worth borrowing from your library as I did. It was fun to watch.

1 out of 5 stars Surprisingly awful.......2006-12-15

After passing on The Full Monty in favour of Brassed Off, the now all-but defunct Film Four were quick to throw money at Peter Cattaneo's next comedy and confidently launched a huge marketing campaign for Lucky Break secure in the knowledge that they had the big local hit of the year. Subsequent excuses for the film's disastrous performance at the box-office varied from good weather putting people off going to the cinema to the revelation that the screenwriter had done time for IRA offences (subsequently overturned, but still about as endearing to the British public as Al Qaeda are to Americans). For some reason no-one mentioned the fact that it's not any good. At all.

A grab-bag of second-hand ideas from Two-Way Stretch, The Tall Guy and others, it's a laugh-free zone that goes out of its way to avoid surprises while failing to ever find its own tone, nodding to half-baked attempts realism and wildly underdeveloped comedy without ever committing to either. Even the tried-and-trusted routines don't work here: Bill Nighy is just irritating as he tries to splutter some life into unfunny dialogue while Timothy Spall does his dishevelled hamster shtick yet again, while the amateur musical used as a backdrop for the planned prison break seems simply amateurish and unfunny. Quite dreadful.
Lucky Break / Very Annie Mary [2001]
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Lucky Break / Very Annie Mary [2001]
    Starring: James Nesbitt , Ruth Madoc , Timothy Spall , Olivia Williams , and Christopher Plummer
    Director: Peter Cattaneo , and Sarah Sugarman
    Manufacturer: Cinema Club
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    All Comedy All Comedy | Comedy | Categories | DVD | Video
    DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
    ASIN: B0001KZNJM
    Release Date: 2004-05-03
    Lucky Break / Very Annie Mary [2001]
    Lucky Break [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
    Average customer rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    • One thing going for it.
    • Entertaining
    • Surprisingly awful
    		 Lucky Break [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
    Starring: James Nesbitt , Olivia Williams , Timothy Spall , Bill Nighy , and Lennie James
    Director: Peter Cattaneo
    Manufacturer: Paramount
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    All Comedy All Comedy | Comedy | Categories | DVD | Video
    DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. Lucky Break Lucky Break
    2. Lawless Heart [2002] Lawless Heart [2002]
    3. Wall Of Silence Wall Of Silence
    4. House! [2000] House! [2000]
    5. Wild About Harry (2000) Wild About Harry (2000)

    ASIN: B00006G8I0
    Release Date: 2002-10-22
    Lucky Break [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

    Amazon.co.uk Review

    Peter Cattaneo's Lucky Break is a likable comedy which suffered by comparison with his earlier hit The Full Monty, but is attractive enough in its own terms. Charming incompetent bank robber Jimmy Hands (James Nesbitt), five years into a 12-year sentence, puts together an escape plan which exploits the desire of the stage-struck prison governor (Christopher Plummer) to see his musical about the life of Nelson performed. The plan gets ever more complicated as he finds himself needing to outwit an unpleasant thug who wants to supplant his original accomplices and wanting to wreck the career of a bullying prison officer and having to weigh the idea of escaping at all against his growing relationship with anger management trainer Annabel (Olivia Williams).

    This is an intelligent caper film with some underlying seriousness to it; Jimmy comes slowly to realise that crime does involve mixing with some fairly unpleasant people. The backstage musical stuff--with its wonderfully fatuous ex-Cambridge director and a score just the right side of entire dreadfulness--is hilarious and the working out of the plot's convoluted central scam efficient. If there is an overall failure of tone, it comes from the clash between the farce elements and the bittersweet quality of the central relationship, as well as Timothy Spall's portrayal of the victimised Cliff.

    On the DVD: Lucky Break is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 ratio and has Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The special features include a director's commentary, cast and crew interviews and a short "Making of" featurette. --Roz Kaveney

    Customer Reviews:

    2 out of 5 stars One thing going for it........2008-02-11

    It's an okay for a rainy Saturday afternoon when nothing else is on type film. It's inoffensive.

    There is one thing going for it though. If you're a fan of Julian Barratt, and even if you're not, this is a great find. He is the best thing in this film. He cracks me up. The 2 stars I've given it are both for him.

    3 out of 5 stars Entertaining.......2007-11-13

    Small-time crook Jimmy Hands fears his luck may have run out. After a botched bank robbery, Jimmy finds himself in prison. But his fortune turns when the warden asks Jimmy to recruit prisoners to act in a musical he's written and plans to stage. Realizing this offers the possibility of a perfect escape route, Jimmy and his cast run the risk of being caught in both the stage's spotlights and the prison's searchlights. It is worth borrowing from your library as I did. It was fun to watch.

    1 out of 5 stars Surprisingly awful.......2006-12-15

    After passing on The Full Monty in favour of Brassed Off, the now all-but defunct Film Four were quick to throw money at Peter Cattaneo's next comedy and confidently launched a huge marketing campaign for Lucky Break secure in the knowledge that they had the big local hit of the year. Subsequent excuses for the film's disastrous performance at the box-office varied from good weather putting people off going to the cinema to the revelation that the screenwriter had done time for IRA offences (subsequently overturned, but still about as endearing to the British public as Al Qaeda are to Americans). For some reason no-one mentioned the fact that it's not any good. At all.

    A grab-bag of second-hand ideas from Two-Way Stretch, The Tall Guy and others, it's a laugh-free zone that goes out of its way to avoid surprises while failing to ever find its own tone, nodding to half-baked attempts realism and wildly underdeveloped comedy without ever committing to either. Even the tried-and-trusted routines don't work here: Bill Nighy is just irritating as he tries to splutter some life into unfunny dialogue while Timothy Spall does his dishevelled hamster shtick yet again, while the amateur musical used as a backdrop for the planned prison break seems simply amateurish and unfunny. Quite dreadful.

    A Complete Mind, Body And Soul Workout
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		A Complete Mind, Body And Soul Workout

      Manufacturer: Quantum Leap
      ProductGroup: DVD
      Binding: DVD

      All Fitness All Fitness | Fitness | Categories | DVD | Video
      DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
      ASIN: B000E9804A
      Release Date: 2006-02-20
      A Complete Mind, Body And Soul Workout

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