The Full Monty

Nobody said anything to me about The Full Monty!

When male strip show act The Chippendales come to Sheffield and the local women pay in their droves to see the show, Gaz and the rest of his unemployed pals pick up on an idea to make some cash. They will do a one off show where they themselves will strip on the stage, with the difference being that this lot will go for the "Full Monty" - totally naked dancing!

The Full Monty is a very winning comedy, it's preposterous in premise of course, but in amongst the frivolity and outright daftness, lies a very clever and functional tale of personal relationships. In spite of what some American reviewers have said over the years, the picture is awash with very funny gags, it's just perhaps that...

Robert Carlyle ("Gaz") and Mark Addy ("Dave") are great in this role reversal comedy set amidst Margaret Thatcher's "recalibration" of Britain's manufacturing industries and communities. Sheffield is bearing the brunt of these changes, and unemployment is rife - with little hope of any of the former steel workers escaping their new found poverty. Even the foreman "Gerald" (Tom Wilkinson) is struggling to feed his voracious population of gnomes (and his extravagant wife). Walking past their local working men's club one day, they notice that a famous troupe of male strippers are selling it out, and so they decide that there's no reason why they can't do it too! Helped by his rather sceptical young son "Nathan" (Wim Snape) the dancer recruitme...

An excellent comedy, with intelligent and creative humor.

This is an interesting comedy that shows that British cinema sometimes surprises with small gems of quality. I don't know exactly how the film was received in its country of origin (it was a time when the British were in shock due to the death of Diana Spencer, ex-wife of the current King Charles III), but, in my country, the film received little attention due to the film Titanic, a box office phenomenon. Still, as far as I know, the film was profitable overall, and was well reviewed by critics. At the 1998 Oscars, it was nominated for four awards, but only won Best Soundtrack for a Comedy or Musical, a category that only existed for a few years.

The story takes place in Sh...