Letterboxd Archive

Mrs. Brown's Boys: The Last Wedding - Part 1 (2002)

Reviewed 28 Apr 2024

In retrospect, I feel a bit bad for ragging on Mrs. Brown's Boys so much when it's clearly Brendan O'Carroll's passion project. He's been trying to get it off the ground in various incarnations since the early 90s, culminating in the 1999 movie starring Anjelica Huston before cooling down a little, not having made much of an impression on the wider cultural landscape. Then came this, the first in a line of seven direct-to-video "movies"? I'm honestly not sure if they can qualify as being proper films. It's all shot on video, the production values are practically zero, and the interwoven plot threads are more reminiscent of a serialised television programme than anything (hint hint). There is an indubitable charm to its back-to-basics approach, something which feels a bit more honest and innocent than the later BBC series, but it's still crass as you like, with mammy flinging out expletives all over the place and a frankly quite gross scene involving a man being tricked into masturbating his dog over the phone. It's barely feature-length, clocking in at just under an hour, and even then I think some of that time could've been shaved off. Essential viewing for Mrs. Brown's Boys fans, I would think, but not for me personally.

⭐ 3/10