Diagonaldi Very well executed

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Leofwine_draca PORRIDGE is perhaps the most successful of the many big screen adaptations of British comedy TV series of the 1970s. It's certainly the funniest. The writing of this film is near-perfect, featuring the same cast that we all know and love and yet expanding the storyline with extra characters and a bigger plot than usual. I thought that it was actually better than the bigger budgeted ESCAPE TO VICTORY which tells almost exactly the same storyline.The film is a success thanks to Ronnie Barker, whose Fletcher remains the life and soul of the party. He's witty, articulate, and always ready with a funny one-liner. The supporting cast of character actors are fine too: Peter Vaughan is reptilian and frightening, Richard Beckinsale warm-hearted and goofy, and Fulton Mackay strict but human. The inclusion of new faces like Julian Holloway, Sam Kelly, and Gorden Kaye is a delight. There isn't a great deal of plotting here, but the football match is well staged and funny and there's never a slow moment - just lots of funny ones.

Zeech I watched this again over 3 decades after it was made with younger folks. How to make it relevant to them? The jokes fall flat in our new millennium — like the 'oh he's gay, so it's funny'. This in a sense made it relevant because it shows what was seen as funny back then.What hadn't changed is the Class War aspect which is clear and present as the backdrop, starting with the accents. Quentin Crisp joke that 'In the US your accents shows where you're from. In contrast to the UK where your accent shows where you're from'. The middle accents come from the 2 governors of the prison. The official governor, from privilege and boarding schools and the shadow governor, the prisoner who runs things from the inside with aspirations of class, displayed by his brilliantly acted faked accent.Between official and shadow governance is the space Fletcher moves, bopping and weaving. Fletcher, the main character we all watched Porridge for, is the survivor. He's not for the system or against the system to fight it, he just wants to get it off his back and get by (straight outta the book and movie 'The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Watch for his delivery of the line to a prison officer 'you, I, we are merely here to establish the status quo'.So yea, this old grimy film worked well as a conversation trigger on the 'how things were back then' theme, without any nostalgia, giving a new lease of life and relevance. Why was it a comedy unlike say HBO's brilliant Oz series? As the man said, if you going to tell people a painful truth you better make them laugh.Shadow Governance

BJJManchester PORRIDGE was without doubt one of the greatest (if not the greatest) sitcoms ever produced on British TV,and two years after it's final episode (and a year after the sequel GOING STRAIGHT),everyone involved decided to produce a big screen version with all the familiar elements at hand.Looking at the rather cheap-jack and crude attempts in previous years (STEPTOE AND SON,ON THE BUSES and ARE YOU BEING SERVED? instantly come to mind among others),most critics and audiences would have dreaded such a prospect,as the film version of another great sitcom DAD'S ARMY was the only one that adequately cut the mustard.The cinema version of PORRIDGE generally comes across rather well,though with definite flaws.The first half-hour or so is certainly the best,with plenty of very funny incident and occasionally hilarious one-liners,with such performers as Brian Wilde,Richard Beckinsale,Fulton Mackay,Peter Vaughan and of course,the brilliant Ronnie Barker,more than effectively repeating their memorable comic characterisations from the classic TV series.In the film's final two-thirds however,inspiration begins to flag,with a somewhat over-stretched plot involving the smuggling out of a new con (Barrie Rutter) during a football match.And much unlike virtually every episode of the TV version,the incidents depicted become rather foolish,flabby and lacking in credulity,which inevitably would have been far more subtle,taut and concise in it's regular half hour sitcom format.Being filmed almost wholly on location in the middle of winter also doesn't help;it all looks very bleak and morose which gives the film a rather pessimistic mood,in stark contrast to the TV version which despite the obviously grim countenance of a prison,still managed to amuse with spectacular success with a minimum of location work,and mainly being set in a convincingly constructed studio set with less harsh lighting,which despite it's claustrophobic feel still managed to produce a consistent vein of optimism.Still,the performances from Barker,Beckinsale,Mackay and co. remain as good as ever to the final shot,and there's enough amusing moments to prevent the film from being anything near the vapid quality of most TV to film spin-offs from this period of British film history.With the execption of the forgettable sitcom BLOOMERS,it was sadly the final released work to feature the immensely talented young actor Richard Beckinsale;he had previously made a name for himself in the slight but amusing sitcom THE LOVERS,before he really hit the big time with his performances in PORRIDGE and another great sitcom of the 1970's, RISING DAMP (arguably the best example of this genre the ITV network ever produced) opposite Leonard Rossiter.He would undoubtedly have become a very big star in the 1980's and 1990's had it been not for his tragically premature death of a heart attack in 1979 aged only 31.Like his fellow co-stars,his performance isn't quite as good as it was in the peerless TV series,but it is still a perfectly acceptable epitaph to his talents and a genuinely classic BBC TV original.RATING:6 and a Half out of 10.

Simon sadly cant put an 11 rating of this film as it certainly deserves it. This is a spin off from the TV series and only the name and characters are the same. The plot, unlike other sitcoms-turned-movies like Steptoe, Dads Army and Are You Being Served, is completely new.Brief outline as here is no way I'm going to spoil it for anyone. Barker is the lovable rogue Fletch and he has been put in charge to arrange a football match in order for another con to escape. The jokes are fresh, the story is fresh and the characters are fantastic. This deserves Oscars for performance, script and direction.Catch this on DVD. Its well worth the money and the time to watch it.