Huge Review

Movies about stand-up are mostly poor and Ben Miller’s adaptation of Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem fails to raise the standard. Thrown together after a heckling incident, ventriloquising waiter Noel Clarke and comic Johnny Harris aspire to be the new Morecambe and Wise. But their gigs are as grizzly as encounters with coke-snorting showbiz types like Thandie Newton, while their failure is as inevitable as the finale is vapid. Clarke and Harris perform stoically despite thin characterisation, while Miller ropes in stellar mates for cameos. But, besides shedding light on the grindingly unglamorous comedy circuit, this collection of set-pieces omits to explain why anyone should care about such delusional misfits. Moreover, it’s fatally unfunny.