A Bunch of Amateurs (2008)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Andy Cadiff

Writers:

Nick Newman (screenplay) &
John Ross (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2009 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

They wished for a star, then wished they hadn't.

Plot:

A sleazy Hollywood agent tricks one of his clients, a faded action star, into playing King Lear in an amateur charity production in England. |

Cast

Burt Reynolds	...	Jefferson Steel
Alexandra Weaver	...	Girl on Motorbike
Elesia Ennis	...	1st Cinema Girl
Sarah Goldberg	...	2nd Cinema Girl
Glynis Brooks	...	Woman In Street
Camilla Arfwedson	...	Amanda Blacke
Michael Wildman	...	Mr. Darcy
Guy Flanagan	...	Box Office Guy
John Moraitis	...	Man In Theatre
Pat Starr	...	Woman In Theatre
Maisie Scott	...	Young Amanda
Charles Durning	...	Charlie Rosenberg
Pandora Colin	...	Nadine
Lucy Akhurst	...	Stewardess
Stephen Gressieux	...	Italian Tourist (as Stefano Gressieux)

Runtime:

UK:96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Singapore:PG | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

CinemaNX

Trivia:

The cast of King Lear seen at the curtain call in the film actually performed two productions for charity, parts of which were filmed and used in the final cut. A number of stage actors cast for the charity production can be seen in the background as extras during certain scenes of the in-film performance and when the final bow is taken.

A splendid movie with splendid acting

What great fun this is. We laughed a great deal. I shall be buying it for sure. I'm mystified by someone's comment that "villages like this don't exist any more in England. Has that person ever been to England? Or if English, have they never been outside a city? Come on, live where we live and you'll see that village is pretty normal. We have plenty of villages where the village shop hasn't been closed down yet. Even supermarkets aren't perfect.

I'd never seen Burt Reynolds in anything before that I can recall and I'd no idea he could be so entertaining - I had visualised him as a typical Hollywood beefcake in tough movies. Well now I'll look out for his movies, or at least any that aren't Hollywood formula thugs and car chases and the like. Nice to see Derek Jacobi, a fav. actor of mine, and how well he played petulance! Everyone else is the typical "characters" of any imaginary village - that doesn't make the real village behind the actors any less real! The guesthouse, oh dear, that bedroom is ghastly. I howled at the scene that got the American actor slung out of the guest house for fornication. It didn't need to be totally original, it was predictable, but it was so well acted that it was completely fresh.

Nice to see pieces of Lear too, the Bard needs more "exposure" these days! How I laughed when the American complains that the "script" needs drastic cutting!