Kevin And Perry Go Large Review

Kevin And Perry Go Large
After they inadvertently foil a bank robbery, Kevin (Enfield) and Perry (Burke) are given a family holiday in Ibitha as reward. They are closer than ever to reaching their ultimate goals in life - to become superstar DJ's, and lose the virginity which hands around their necks like an albatross.

by Colin Kennedy |
Published on
Release Date:

21 Apr 2000

Running Time:

88 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Kevin And Perry Go Large

The key to one joke comedies is this: how good is the joke? The awkward adolescent schtick which Harry Enfield as Kevin and, especially, Kathy Burke as Perry, perfected for Enfield's TV show was easily good enough to stretch over two series. Surely it can be stretched that bit further, to wrap around the big screen? Well, just about.

Slow to get into top gear and nixed by a wish-fulfillment ending (do Kevin and Perry really deserve to live happily ever after?), the middle section - with the boys havin' it in Ibiza - manages to cram in enough gross-out gags and belly laughs to cover any cracks in the creaky caper. Plot-wise this is pure Disney - dirty Disney, sure, but Disney all the same. Kevin and Perry want to meet girls, be superstar DJs, have it large, get laid. They do. In other words, the universe Kevin And Perry inhabits bears no relation to teenage life. And kids know stuff. DJs don't arrive in limos with a girl on each arm. They do, however, tend to take drugs, something that Rhys Ifans' star DJ - and the whole film - avoids.

It's a shame that the BBFC saw fit to give Kevin And Perry a 15 certificate, because the film would play perfectly well to horny 13 year-olds, while anyone over 15 might miss more sophisticated fare, like American Pie; sappy and sentimental it may have been, but Pie had the requisite romance to sucker more sophisticated teens before hitting them with the knob gag. Enfield obviously doesn't care. He's much more interested in beating the all-time record for knob gags, which he achieves with inches to spare. An effort that has surely got to count for something?

Beneath the seemingly endless stream of base, crude humour (not that there's anything particuklarly wrong with that), this has a surprisingly tame, almost Disney-like ethos.
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