The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse

Director: Steve Bendelack 
Writers: Jeremy Dyson/Mark Gatiss/Steve Pemberton/Reece Shearsmith
Producers: Greg Brenman/Ed Guiney
Starring: Mark Gatiss/Steve Pemberton/Reece Shearsmith/Peter Kay/Simon Pegg 
Year: 2005
Country: UK
BBFC Certification: 15
Duration: 91 minutes

In this feature-length adventure based on the darkly hilarious TV series, the fictional world of Royston Vasey is facing apocalypse and the only way to avert disaster is for our nightmarish cast of local characters to find a way into the real world and confront their creators. From present day Soho to the fictional film world of 17th Century Britain, the residents must overcome countless bizarre obstacles in their bid to return Royston Vasey to safety by literally meeting their makers!

Are you local?

For everybody who doesn’t know what The League of Gentlemen is, it is a dark comedy show that has bizarre yet funny characters living in a town named Royston Vasey. You might have heard of one of their characters, Papa Lazarou who is very well-known for his catchphrase “Hello Dave!”. The story for the movie is basically brilliant, the residents of the fictional Royston Vasey come to our world to meet their creators to avoid extinction. The acting is superb, everybody involved in the movie did a great job as their characters (or as themselves for some). The characters were written very well and it had that feel that it was a TV show special which is a good thing for fans of the first series. The writing is great as was the direction and the script was good and very funny. There are some scenes in the movie that were okay but could have been done a little better but this is definitely a treat for the fans.

I personally like The League of Gentlemen. I watch the shows whenever they’re on television and I own the radio show CD and the Live DVD but do I think the movie is as good as the first series? The answer to that question is 100% yes! The dark humour that made me love the television series is definitely there in Apocalypse and the movie has some really funny moments and the animation and CGI were done rather well but I have to say that the downfall of this movie was the ending. It was bitterly disappointing because the movie was done well and it was very funny but the ending let the movie down a little unfortunately. Also, there isn’t enough Papa Lazarou, he’s my favourite character but he was only in it for five minutes! Still, it’s a darkly funny movie. If you’re interested in this movie, I suggest you watch series one of  The League of Gentlemen before you do so you know what you’re about to watch since this is really for the fans. If you like dark and silly comedy movies or you’re a fan of the show, then this is for you but if you don’t, don’t watch it.

7/10
I thought this was very funny, I laughed quite a few times at this movie. This is a must-see for the fans!