Parents' Guide to

Dad's Army

By Renee Longstreet, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

British WWII comedy with slapstick action won't engage kids.

Movie NR 2016 100 minutes
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Kids say (2):

Even with some of England's prime emeritus players at their silliest, this is a thin effort that fails to revive a very popular 1970s British sitcom about the Home Guard during WWII. Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, and Tom Courtenay are having a wonderful time in Dad's Army. They preen, they fall on their bums, they mug; they make the most of a conventional plot -- elderly codgers who, despite their missteps and internal squabbles, do their part to save Merrie Olde England and the civilized world from the mustache-twirling Nazis. Zeta-Jones flashes some lovely leg, flutters some lustrous eyebrows, and charms the small-town citizens. However, none of that is enough. The characters are one-dimensional. The jokes are telegraphed for miles. And there's barely an iota of suspense or a hint of ripened wit. It's hard to imagine that today's young US audiences will connect with this film, but some of the actors have real fans amongst those kids (i.e., Gambon as Dumbledore and Nighy as Billy Mack in Love Actually) so that may be enough.

Movie Details

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