Almost Married (2014) starring Philip McGinley, Mark Stobbart, Emily Atack, Smug Roberts, Bill Fellows directed by Ben Cookson Movie Review

Almost Married (2014)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Philip McGinley and Mark Stobbart in Almost Married (2014)

Some Teapotting

As best man Jarvis (Mark Stobbart) made sure his friend Kyle (Philip McGinley) had a proper stag do; naked paintball, pub, strip joint and the mother of all hangovers the next morning. Unfortunately things don't go completely as planned when the next morning Kyle has a nettle sensation when he tries to go to the toilet and that means a trip down the clinic for an STD test. With the doctor putting the fear of God into Kyle that the only way he can be confident that he won't pass anything on to his fiancee Lydia (Emily Atack) is to not have sex for 90 days, the incubation period and that is a problem as before the 90 days up there is a small matter of his wedding.

I may be wrong but I reckon "Almost Married" has a very specific audience in mind, the 20 something male that likes to go out on a weekend but is evolving in to married man. It has that aspect of men behaving badly, the conversations about life, sex and everything when they are in the pub but are not mature enough to deal with discussing their issues with a medical profession. It also has that aspect of men not being able to own up to a mistake and instead coming up with some hair brained schemes for covering up what has happened.

Emily Atack in Almost Married (2014)

The thing is that I am no longer in that age bracket which I am convinced "Almost Married" is made for and so whilst I can see that how for some Kyle trying to get away with not having to tell his future wife what happened will be amusing whilst Jarvis's uncensored gob when it comes to his comments about others will make some laugh. But I just found it all too familiar, all a bit like someone trying to turn "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" into a movie which I enjoyed once but kind of grew out of. And that is in some ways the thing as the humour in "Almost Married" is the sort which you do grow out of even if it still occasionally makes you smile.

As for the acting, well I have to say that Mark Stobbart's performance as Jarvis reminded me far too much of Will Mellor's as Gaz in "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps". In fact the performances all round whilst good all end up a bit cliche as the characters are British sitcom caricatures.

What this all boils down to is that "Almost Married" is on one hand a good movie, it has some fun scenes and some amusing ideas but it is so geared up to a specific audience which unless you are a young man going through the change to married it doesn't quite work.


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