THE FULL MONTY



Rated R - Running time: 1:30 - Reviewed 8/13/97

Author's Note: This is one of the ten movie reviews I wrote for the October 30, 1997 issue of The Republican, the first week my reviews were ever published there. Because of space and time requirements, these ten reviews had to be especially brief, some even shorter than this Author's Note. Someday I will re-view them and re-review them so as to provide a more in-depth commentary, but for now you'll just have to live with the short version. Sorry. --JRM
America's love for British humor continues. In fact, I think its Britishness is perhaps the main appealing characteristic of this hilarious but rather average story. The actors (Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, and several others) are also definitely not flashy movie-star types — they're average guys, in every sense of the phrase. They play a group of out-of-work steelworkers who see that when the Chippendale dancers come to town they make a killing, with the local women lining up outside to see them strip. After a period of making fun of the Chippendale "poofs" (while standing in line at the job service office), they see the lucrative opportunity presented to them. Except, since they are not as pretty as the professional strippers, they're going to have to go for "The Full Monty." As each one of the group has his own fears and trepidations to overcome, they practice dancing to old disco hits in their abandoned steel mill. By the night of the big show, they have all made a journey of courage and hilarious self-searching. ****
Copyright 1997 by John R. McEwen and The Republican

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