Pointless, paceless, plodding biopic of Ian Dury (1942-2000), influential proto-punk front-man of Kilburn & the High Roads (1970-75) and then Ian Dury & The Blockheads. An unimaginative, cliche-ridden account of a notably unconventional, spikily confrontational and instinctively iconoclastic individual, it's of note only for Andy Serkis' predictably full-blooded, moving and consistently spot-on Dury impersonation.
   But even a full-tilt Serkis can't do much to overcome the drab visuals, tepid direction and leaden script (which spans roughly a decade without anyone, adults or children, seeming to age) - deficiencies that are inescapably (and interminably) exposed on the big screen. As a more ruthlessly-edited 75-minute BBC Sunday night play (in the vein, say, of the M.Sheen-as-K.Williams enterprise Fantabulosa!) S&D&R&R might conceivably have passed muster. As a two-hour film, however, it's pretty much dead in the water.
   Among the recent/current wave of "lo-fi" British music pictures, this one lands roughly halfway between the dire disaster that was Telstar and the watchably deluxe soap that is Nowhere Boy (the likes of 24 Hour Party People and Control are in a different league.) Dury fans may well applaud, but their ranks are most unlikely to be swelled by such an unfortunate missed-opportunity misfire.

Neil Young
9th January, 2010

¦ Empire cinema, Sunderland, UK, 8.Jan.10 (£5.80) ¦