The Full Monty (1997)

The dialogue is damn funny. The relationships between the six out-of-work steel workers forming a male stripping act to make money are great. "Hurry up, ya fat bastard." It's a motivational story. The camera-work is done well.The music suits the mood. The song Hot Stuff is featured. Another movie I like with this song is the 2015 movie The Martian featuring Matt Damon.I'd recommend it to anyone. It's entertaining considering the idea is a group of amateur male strippers.

The first time I watched the DVD I rated it a 9, but now, on a second look, I got a bit bored. But the Bonus Features on the 2-DVD package were good, especially the language lady, Laura Wright, who told us about the changes that Fox asked for coz they thought American audiences wouldn't understand the English idiom. Like "top"? and "works", and DIY? and "lassie"? and "twat"? But strangely, no mention is made of the phrase "There's none so queer as folk" ? My guess is that no one could come up with an explanation? Yet just about everyone else in the English speaking world would know it simply means... "Some people are strange" (we all would have learned it from Coronation Street on TV?) My guess is that that phrase and the scene were simply deleted from the US release.The commentaries by the director and another by the producer were awful. I got the impression that neither were actually watching the film, and were just babbling away? OK, Pasolini (producer) did at least mention Emily Woof who got four scenes for a total of about 3 minutes on screen. This is a boys or males film and the ladies hardly get a look in.The story is straight forward, factory workers made redundant, no job, no money, so... when they learn that the women of their lives are prepared to spend money on seeing a male strip-show, they decide to have a go too.It takes quite a bit of organising, they arrange a venue, they have to practise all the actions, get the right costumes, and then actually do it. - Something that most of us wouldn't do, no matter what? There are some touching scenes. The foreman, Gerald hasn't even told his wife he has no job. But she keeps spending, and the savings are disappearing. Gaz, (Robert Carlyle) is behind in the maintenance payments to his ex-wife,(Emily Woof) others are depressed and suicidal.The acting is great and there are quite a few quotable lines, but it is still a bit slow, so I've gone down to a 7.

Gaz (Robert Carlyle), his best buddy Dave (Mark Addy), and his son are relegated to petty crime after everybody is laid off at the steel plant in Sheffield. They are struggling to find any jobs. Then one night, Gaz got the idea of stripping from a Chipendales show. He gathers a hopeless jobless crew including the former foreman Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) who has yet to tell his wife that he was laid off 6 months ago.Robert Carlyle is a likable schemer, and Mark Addy is a charming fool. Together they make a hilarious duo. The jokes are smart and funny. I love that Dave complains about Jennifer Beals' welding in 'Flashdance'. It is the marriage between the seriousness of the hopelessness of unemployment, and the embarrassment of male nudity. And just as it gets you laughing, it breaks your heart.

Ah, The Full Monty - it warms the cockles of your heart and revives your faith in human nature.  From the beguiling Yorkshire accents, to the ubiquitous swearing, to the liberal  sprinklings of political incorrectness throughout, I defy anyone not love this unassuming, feel-good British comedy.   Set in Sheffield in the 80s when unemployment was rife and men were skint, this movie truly catches the spirit of the times while evoking a strange nostalgia for that shared experience of joblessness and economic doom in 80s working class Britain.  The Full Monty comprises a motley crew of disaffected and seemingly mismatched men,  several of whom lost their jobs in the collapse of the steel industry, and follows their day to day life as they attempt to set up a striptease act to rival the Chippendales (and, of course, earn some ready cash).  Main man, Gav (Robert Carlyle) with his weasly face, and exasperated cries of 'foookin' 'ell!' every five minutes is bloody brilliant as is 'fat bastard' Dave (Mark Addy), and pale, suicidal carrot- top, Lomper (Steve Huison).   As well as superbly showcasing working class life with all it's social problems, ugliness and pathos, The Full Monty touches on broken relationships, homosexuality and the shame and hardship of long term unemployment.  However, the joy of this movie is that despite the struggles of these men and their families, there are no pity fests; life is what it is and you just get on with it.  The buoyancy, cheek and unerring spiritedness  of the characters  keeps you smiling .  Dancing in the dole queue, g-strings in the sitting room and cling film in the potting shed, this film's got it all - and the world is a better place for it.