Movie, 2016

Curiously lifeless remake of the old Ealing comedy, set on a Scottish island where a whisky draught in wartime is solved by a shipwreck and skill of the islanders in keeping their stash away from the authorities. A film without all the effects and trappings of a blockbuster is always welcome, though despite some reasonably decent performances, the film as a whole is lacking. Perhaps the period details don’t quite work; perhaps the cinematography isn’t up to much – perhaps the drafting in of Dad’s Army Mainwaring and Pike-like characters is overdone. Not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, although a little disappointing to have made all that effort for something which looks a shadow of the original.