The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011)

The Hunt, despite a couple of pro Blair supporters reviewing, is full of laughs, clever satire and ridiculous over the top insanity that we've come to expect from the Comic Strip and why would we have it any other way. The production is slick, cleverly done in the noir style, with homage to many films. Politics aside, it stands on its own as a fast paced entertaining comedy with great cameos by the usual suspects. Shut the fluck up, get on your knees and all pay homage to the great one, Tony the Fabricating Fugitive as he rivals James Bond as Steve McQueen in the Great Escapade with Thatcher as the Iron Fence that Blair must mount. God forbid he deserves that Sainthood. Kudo's to Peter Richardson and the team for pulling off one of their better productions since their eighties heyday. RIP Rik.

Anyone who didn't find this film funny obviously has a sense of humour failure or is still in love with Blair the liar. If you don't get satire, don't bother watching it, you won't get it. However, if you loathe politicians and love 50s style films, this is one for you. Brilliant writing and acting, beautifully shot and really, Blair etc deserve everything this film throws at them. Really looking forward to the DVD coming out as this is one film I could re-watch, over and over and never get tired of it. 10/10 for laughter and irony and well done Stephen Mangan for being utterly despicable as the main character! More please from Comic Strip!

I was looking forward to seeing this. It seemed like a good idea, and I have happy memories of the inimitable 'Strike' from twenty-odd years ago. This used the same basic approach: turn English political history into a movie pastiche. This time it took a lot from the old Robert Donat version of the Thirty-Nine Steps. Stephen Mangan did a good job as the lead. He acted the role as a slightly Blair-ised version of himself. The other actors were fine, too. Jennifer Saunders was great, playing Margaret Thatcher in the manner of Sunset Boulevard. The only problem was the script - rather an important deficiency in this type of comedy. There were some funny moments, but they were pretty brief. At times, in desperation, swearing was used as a substitute for humour. A let down.

This one off story is a welcome return for the Comic Strip team; featuring many original members as well as one or two new faces. One of those new people is Stephen Mangan who plays Tony Blair; a Prime Minister on the run after being charged with murder! Who he is accused of murdering isn't made clear but in flashbacks we see him killing Robin Cook and discussing how he would become party leader if John Smith were to die… shortly before that happened. While on the run he kills again but each time he justifies it to himself. On his trail is Inspector Hutton of Scotland Yard, played by Robbie Coltrane.I rather enjoyed this although only really laughed out loud a couple of times. The acting was pretty solid although none of the actors really looked like the people they were meant to be portraying; not that that really mattered... showing Bush and 'Donny' Rumsfeld as a couple of Mafia types was hilarious. The idea of making this a black and white film noir with a '50s look was inspired but slightly spoilt by the swearing… I don't mind a bit of bad language in a film but it felt out of place given the deliberately dated look of it. It has been a while since I saw any of the other Comic Strip films so can't really compare it although I suspects fans will enjoy this too; it does help if the viewer knows a bit about the rise and fall of Tony Blair and the various enquiries into the Iraq War; without this knowledge many of the jokes might not work.