Dad's Army (2016) Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Tom Courtenay, Bill Paterson, Blake Harrison, Daniel Mays, Michael Gambon, Martin Savage, Frank Williams, Sarah Lancashire Movie Review

Dad's Army (2016)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Dad's Army (2016)

Doomed from the Get Go

With World War II still going on keeping things in order with the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard is George Mainwaring's (Toby Jones - Serena) top priority. That is why when he receives orders from above for his men to guard an important facility on the coast he can't wait to see some action. Meanwhile an old flame of Arthur Wilson's (Bill Nighy - About Time) has shown up in the area in the form of the very attractive Rose Winters (Catherine Zeta-Jones - Death Defying Acts), a journalist, who unbeknown to Wilson, and his friends in the Home Guard, is in fact a German spy.

Let this 2016 movie version of "Dad's Army" be a lesson to anyone who comes up with the bright idea of trying to use characters from an old sitcom with new actors playing them in a new movie. Put it simply could anyone other than David Jason play Del Boy, or how about someone other than Henry Winkler playing the Fonze. It does not work and so it is the case with "Dad's Army" as anyone other than Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn playing their parts it ends up feeling very wrong. In fairness Michael Gambon certainly does a nice take on Arnold Ridley's Godfrey but everywhere else in this 2016 reincarnation of "Dad's Army" the casting simply doesn't work because no one could play the parts like the original actors did.

Now in truth I think the people who decided to make this 2016 movie version of "Dad's Army" missed a trick because whilst the storyline about a spy and the gullible men of the Home Guard was just about okay it was nothing special especially when you have the actor issue to contend with. But instead if they had made this a movie take on the behind the scenes aspects of the original series it might have worked a lot better. Then you would have Toby Jones playing Arthur Lowe rather than Toby Jones trying to imitate what Arthur Lowe did with the character of Capt. Mainwaring for the entire movie.

What this all boils down to is that "Dad's Army" didn't work for me and highlighted how misguided it is to try and make a modern movie of an old sitcom with different actors playing the parts. Of course for those who don't know the original "Dad's Army" there might be something still entertaining about this movie but for fans of the original sitcom it is likely to be less than entertaining.


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