Perhaps I am at a great disadvantage reviewing this film when just a few days ago I finished watching the complete original television series, so everything about the original characters is so fresh in my mind.First of all the acting is terrible. Toby Jones as Captain Mainwaring is perhaps the best of a terrible bunch, which still isn't saying much for him either. Michael Gambon could have done a marvelous job as Godfrey, but the script never gave him the opportunity. Bill Nighy is utterly hopeless as Sergeant Wilson - he played the part like he had never seen John Le Mesurier's wonderful interpretation of the role, and Tom Courtenay came across like a second rate actor desperately trying to reproduce Clive Dunn's character.I'm not going to say anymore - the film is so very boring, and I am wandering if this version was deliberately done this way for some reason or the other. All the charm and wit of the characters and the stories of the original series are hopelessly lost. David Croft must be turning in his grave.

Oh wow.Where to start?Awful plot, so bad and cringeworthy that it is not worthy of the term plot. There are the lame jokes which we expect, the prat falls which we also expect. What is missing is any sense of narrative.this is ninety minutes of my life I cannot get back..Don't bother.

Being a big fan of the series as it is one of many things that me and my Granddad bond over, and is a great series that i just find myself re-watching over and over again, that when they announced this movie that was supposed to conclude the series I was ecstatic, but then i noticed that something was missing from the original Television series the charm.although the cast are well established actors none of them fit the rolesToby Jones: pales in comparison to Arthur Lowe, he's obviously too thin to play the role and has too much hair to play Captain Manwaring and isn't anywhere near as stubborn as the role should be.Bill Nighy: whilst more physically suited to play Sgt Wilson, he's much too rough in his performance to carry the charm and kindness that John Le Mesurier brought to the role.Tom Courtenay: whilst his physical appearance as Cpl Jones is the best of the cast, it's obvious they're trying to desperately to channel Clive Dunn and it does get annoying after a while.Bill Paterson: His physical appearance doesn't make me thing of John Laurie at all, he looks too young to play Pvt Frazer as he has colour in his hair and is obviously too thin and looks too short to play the role.Daniel Mays: I was looking forward to seeing how they'd replace Pvt Walker as after James Beck passed away in the middle of the shows run, I wanted to see how they'd try and carry on the Character, his Physical appearance is a bit too chubby and they removed his quips that brought the character to life.Michael Gambon: Whilst I find that he's my favorite of the cast compared to Arnold Ridley he is pale in comparison, but he is the best acted of the entire cast and is the most faithful, the only problem is that he's a bit too fat for the role and doesn't look as gentle as Pvt Godfrey should.Blake Harrison: Personally I felt that they only cast Blake Harrison so as a younger audience would be interested in the film, whilst he looks similer to Ian Lavender, I feel in acting due to his previous stint as Neil on the inbetweeners, I couldn't take him seriously as Pvt Pike, the main problem i have with his characterization, is that they took his hobby of Film watching and used it for his character arc, which made him seem annoying.Martin Savage: Whilst Bill Pertwee wasn't a main character on the series he was still a defining part and in this film ARP Warden Hodges is criminally underused, he's never seen at grips with Manwaring at all throughout the film.Frank Williams: The one thing they did right was not replace one of the few actors who could still carry on and that was Frank Williams as the vicar, he brings warmth to whatever seen he's in and is a great screen presence for the fans.Considering that the Film is meant to be a sequel to the series, they do a shoddy job of making it seem like it:.The Platoon is now only 12 members instead of 17 .Godfrey Carries a riffle which after becoming the Medic he ceases to do soand these are just the continuity problems, whilst you'd expect to have a great title sequence with "who do you think you're kidding Mr Hitler" playing, they instead decide to copy the Credits of the original series and have the actors walk through the woods, but they fail to even capture the feel of the homage, by showing front views and not the angles of the original.Even series stables are broken, the catchphrases are either left out or show horned in, and one of the series long running and best jokes Mrs Manwaring is removed and she's instead shown on screen when she should just be a an unseen menace to Captain Manwaring.The Film steals many plot points from the Show, and whilst you may think that's good, it's lazy in comparison to the classic originals, i'm surprised they didn't shoe horn in the "don't tell em pike" bit for good measure.I would recommend avoiding this Film if you're a fan of the series like myself and want to see a great ending to the series, i'd suggest that you avoid this movie and imagine something better.

...(pun definitely intended) to refresh such a seminal show as Dad's Army, but I think this turned out to be a genuinely likable film in the end.True, the script felt a little clunky at times, especially when the writers shoehorned in the catchphrases from the original show (a random single scene camera pan across the platoon where the only line is Jones saying "They don't like it up em!" being the most cringing). But, it was a nice counter-expectant touch to finally hear Jones utter the "Don't panic" line, but at himself, not Mainwaring. And the scene where the tanks turned out to be balloons was a deft nod of the head to some of the Allied tactics actually deployed in WW2.But then there were plot holes and obvious questions such as (using the tank scene again) how anyone believed there could be hundreds of real tanks at the top of the hill when the sheer noisy act of getting them there in the first place would have been heard in France, never mind the local village? Or the moment when Wilson and Mainwaring realised they were both hiding behind the furniture in the house of Catherine Zeta Jones' spy - wouldn't that be cause for further discussion between the two? Having said that, this was clearly produced as a nostalgic romp for those of us who remember the original series, and had no time to develop some of the clever intricacies we remember, so as such it didn't too bad a job.