Rent 8 Minutes Idle (2012)
3.4 of 5 from 60 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Dan (Tom Hughes) has always taken the path of least resistence - at work, at home, even in his love life. But when he's kicked out of the family home, he's faced with no option but to start secretly bedding down in the call centre where he works. Suddenly, everything that he's previously taken for granted - hot showers, clean clothes, friends, even his beloved cat is either disappearing or conspiring against him. As Dan's work/life balance spirals hilariously out of control, he finds himself fending off the attentions of his predatory boss (Montserrat Lombard) and being increasingly drawn to co-worker Teri (Ophelia Lovibond). But Teri is leading her own double life. One that will challenge Dan to do something he's never had to before care about someone other than himself! - Actors:
- Paul Kaye, Antonia Thomas, Ophelia Lovibond, Tom Hughes, Luke Newberry, Montserrat Lombard, Pippa Haywood, Jack Ashton, Robert Wilfort, Leigh Quinn, Sarah Buckland, Frankie Townsend, Roddy Peters, Angela P. Martinez, Divian Ladwa
- Directors:
- Mark Simon Hewis
- Producers:
- Sarah Cox
- Writers:
- Nicholas Blincoe, Matt Thorne
- Studio:
- Luxin
- Genres:
- Comedy
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Reviews (1) of 8 Minutes Idle
Very limp attempted sex comedy that should have been a half hour TV sitcom - 8 Minutes Idle review by PV
This film is funded by the BBC in its pre-woke days, and looks it. Based on a novel by Matt Thorne with a screenplay with a fellow artiliterati, it proves it is great to have contacts. The BBC runs on such crony-fuel.
Riding the 90s/00s focus on what men are, a la Nick Hornby Feverpitch, or High Fidelity or maybe David Nichols' Starter for Ten.
There is just not enough here to sustain a film - or a novel, one suspects. It just tries way too hard, with subplots galore, stretching the plot out over almost 90s minutes and that felt long. A TV drama of an hour of half and hour is what such a story needs. It is a sitcom basically and not a very funny one.
Some funny moments and the actors do well with their cartoon characters Tom Hughes has played big roles since, Robert Graves in a recent film.
But in general, it is all as limp as the main character - get another wimp loser man portrayed in film (TV drama now only has those or men as incompetent buffooons, as in TV ads). There is a very long British tradition of this, think Some Mothers, Norman Wisdom and Chaplin etc. But they did it well.
The cat subplot is silly and not realistic too. And the one with a make underling and female boss would be considered sexual harassment at least if the sexes were reversed, and maybe even sexual assault or rape. But when a man is abused it is comedy, ha ha.
And they probably wouldn't get past the woke pc metoo new puritan police now with the lewd images, subplots and attitudes, oh no matron! Me I prefer Are You Being Served for innuendo.
2 stars. JUST.
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