The Comedy Vault – Absolutely Fabulous The Movie.

Absolutely Fabulous The Movie (2016)

In the 70s or thereabouts, a lot of successful British sitcoms went on to have a film spin-off version made, but this stopped after a while. There haven’t been too many examples of this in more recent years, but this is one that made the jump to the big screen. Absolutely Fabulous launched on BBC2 in 1992, and starred Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley.

There was much anticipation about what direction this film would go in, and this reminds me of the odd thing about sitcoms. As these characters are being played, time passes for real, but just like in comics, this never seems to happen in sitcoms. Everyone always acts the same, the circle of friends is never changed, nobody ages, nobody learns.

Can Edina and Patsy still carry on with their drunken debauchery that caused such a stir with viewers first time round without anyone realising it’s almost 25 years later? Is Edina’s daughter Saffron still at school? Is Bubble still not making sense? Edina still works in PR, what she doesn’t know about fashion isn’t worth knowing, and she is fairly sure that she is friends with all the big stars.

This means that there are endless guest appearances, including Kate Moss, because they would be sure that Kate Moss wouldn’t turn such a thing down, and then everyone can go “ooh look it’s Kate Moss, how fabulous”, and “oh, is that that woman off that thing? It is!”. Edina and Kate are good friends, not like you. But then there is a rather unfortunate incident that leads to a media storm (one of the modern-day things that is beyond trying to parody really).

Edina and Patsy decide to go off to the French Riviera while everything cools off. Maybe they could escape from this scandal and start a new life here. Edina carries on trying to hang out with all of the hot dudes who are very rich, and keeping up with all of the latest trends. They can open a bottle of champagne here, there’s always got to be a bottle of champagne on the go.

One sign that proves that this film was made in more recent years are the references to things like downloading the latest podcasts to FaceSpace, or whoever it is you say it. Just when Edina and Saffron decide to have a heart-to-heart and it still starts to get a little soppy, Kate is tracked down, much to everyone’s relief, and Edina and Kate go off and have some champagne to celebrate. Oh, and Patsy marries an old man.

I am also reminded about film posters (rant no. 2 coming…). There are so many critics nowadays that plenty of positive reviews can be found, but I do tire of the rather desperate ones that want to get noticed and consist of “if you don’t think that this is the greatest film ever made, then you’re a moron”. Having said that, this one was fairly well received. Extras include deleted scenes and outtakes, along with a look at all of that fancy fashion.