A Bunch Of Amateurs
A slight but reasonably amusing little film, A Bunch Of Amateurs feels more like a gentle TV show padded to movie length - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make one question the necessity of going to the cinema to see the thing. There's nothing groundbreaking here, and you need a reasonable amount of suspension of disbelief that the initial setup propagates through to sustain the rest of the film (rather than the more likely 'look, I was tricked into coming here, I'm leaving'). There are some nice digs at the acting profession, and I do like films that employ the creation of other dramatic arts (Shakespeare in Love being the obvious example. This is also Shakespeare, but King Lear, and not remotely as inventive as SiL). There's also some weird and unsuccessful diversions (notably an agent committing suicide in a 'hilarious' way), but the solution to the problem being 'deceiving the tabloid newspapers out of lots of money' is a pretty satisfying resolution. There's a bit of family stuff that doesn't intrude too much, and despite the script trying to be clever and draw parallels with King Lear it doesn't work all that well, but never mind.

Burt Reynolds is decent enough to send himself up, and for the most part doesn't do a bad job, though there are a few weak points in the first half hour. Derek Jacobi is perfectly cast as the pompous actor who thinks he should have the lead parts. Imelda Staunton's part is a bit haphazard but she gives a reasonable performance with it. There are various other people - probably a few too many - giving performances of varying quality.

This isn't a bad film, but it doesn't aspire to greatness and doesn't inadvertently achieve it anyway. 5.5 out of 10.