Blackball

Pretty good, cheeky little comedy. Paul Kaye does a great turn as a cocky, rancid little weasel of a man, infuriatingly good at bowls, to the dismay of polite society. The film takes a lot of little swipes at American "against the odds" sports movies, which are all too common. There's basically two jokes here 1) how exciting bowls really isn't, and 2) how appalling the oik-savant bowls player is.

Paul Kaye made me laugh just looking at him, as did Johnny Vegas as usual. If the film had a weakness, it was that it was taking pot-shots at too many targets - the starchy traditionalist arch-nemesis, the blazer brigade, American sports promoters, sky's coverage of cricket, and so forth. As such, we didn't get nearly the pantomime villains needed to be foil to Kaye's pantomime clown.

Overall, a good 7/10, go see it if you're looking for a movie to watch kind of movie. I wouldn't make a special effort to see it, but if you're at a loose end, and Sunday afternoon TV is all bleedin' Tennis, you could do a lot worse.