AS a long time fan I cannot believe this disjointed nonsense has been aired. I saw Ian Dury live so many times this makes me weep. Fans please avoid this politically correct load of old buylocks like the plague - he would have. The dateline jumps with no explanation. There is no I mean no connection with events Christ there is simply no way to describe this turkey. I watched it all the way through, as I did his career. I have no idea why -He did not deserve this I was a High Roads fan! This is like a 1940s biopic. Watch it if you don't know anything about him. If you do remember him though, turn off and watch "Only Fools And Horses - at any rate they can make a stab at an East End accent

Back in 1977 while punk was just getting going, a band called Ian Dury and the Blockheads released an album called 'New Boots and Panties'. A few years later, feeling a bit nostalgic, I bought said album really cheap. I still have it today; in fact I'm listening to it as I type this review. Now, onto the film, it's a biopic all about Ian Dury, his fight against disability and his rise to fame. Here's a brief summary before I tell you my thoughts (summary haters please mingle with the audience while I write the next paragraph).Ian Dury was an entertainer, or that's what he always said he was interviewed. He had been struck down with polio when he was young and this left him withered down his left side. When we first see him, he is with another band who are rehearsing downstairs while his wife, Betty, gives birth upstairs. Later, after their last gig, he meets Denise Roudette, with whom he has an affair. They move in together and a while later, his son, Baxter, comes to stay with them. As Ian puts a new band together, including musician and songwriter Chaz Jankel, Baxter struggles to come to terms with the chaotic lifestyle he has been thrown into. The film plots his rise to fame and the effect it has on Ian and those around him. It also tells of his early life in flashback, his relationship with his father, Bill, and his unhappy childhood in an institution. I won't say any more as I don't want to give too much away.Made in a very theatrical style, this film cuts from live action to animation, to live musical performances and back again. It all sounds a bit chaotic, but, for me at least, it works. At the centre is a really great performance from Andy Serkis as Ian Dury, although he doesn't particularly look like him, he has all his mannerisms down to a tee. I also thought Bill Milner played the part of Baxter Dury very well, it can't have been an easy part for a young actor and I thought he coped with it pretty well. Similarly, Wesley Nelson played the part of Young Ian Dury very well. I should also give honourable mentions to Olivia Williams as Ian's wife, Naomie Harris as Denise Roudette, Tom Hughes as Chaz Jankel, and nice cameos from both Ray Winstone as Bill Dury (Ian's dad) and Noel Clarke as Desmond.Although Ian Dury wasn't the easiest person to get along with (for those that don't know, he passed away in 2000) and consequently not the nicest man in the world, I found this quite an enjoyable film to watch. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, but I do recognise that Ian was a very talented chap and I always respected him as an artiste. Later in his career he appeared in quite a few films, not a bad actor. Over all, it's quite an interesting film, very touching at times but also quite bold in its approach. I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but still… recommended.My score: 7.1/10

A fine lead performance by Andy Serkis who played Gollum, King Kong and, er Moors Murderer Ian Brady. I suppose what with him playing real people - or at least established characters - he's following a similar career path to Blair/Frost/Clough actor Michael Sheen. (While Serkis doing Blair would be a stretch, I could see Sheen playing the anaemic po-faced Brady.) Serkis seems to BE Dury though he doesn't look that much like him; Dury looked like a malformed Kray twin and Ray Winstone (who pops up as Dury's dad) in his younger days would be more a physical match.Talking of which, Jamie Winstone appears before the film starts doing her schoolmarm bit, telling us to watch out for anyone videoing the movie. "There's always one who's got to spoil it isn't there..." The movie is good stuff and I liked the dialogue, though much of it may be bon mots from the man himself rather than from the scriptwriter. It's mainly The Life and Death of Peter Sellers type stuff, in that we have a guy over 30 held back by perceived physical limitations and prejudice who makes it big at the expense of his family life.That said, the genre is a bit box-ticking in its emotions, it's all emotional shorthand. Everything is deliberately simplified, prettified and made a bit phony. When we see the band practising at home, and Dury sacks the drummer while his wife is giving birth upstairs, well, that's based on a real event, except here it looks phony, comical. And it's a bit like that throughout: here's the girlfriend looking moody, here's the kid petulantly burning his dad's presents, etc. It lacks verisimilitude, or that seedy, downbeat 1970s punk vibe. The audience is spoonfed and every scene is a stepping stone. It also has to overlook the fact that unlike Gene Vincent, Dury did not die young, say in 1980, but 20 years later, not in a ripe old age admittedly but with enough time to conjure with.Still, enjoyable throughout and artist Peter Blake's titles are very good. Blake was Dury's tutor don't you know.

Any film featuring Andy Serkis is worth investigating. The man's magnetic, assimilating his characters sufficiently to expunge most of himself. He's also very good at swearing. Proper screen swearing is tricky as it requires total annihilation of self-consciousness - Serkis manages to get his Dury to produce profanity that is both rasping and idiomatic.The film itself is a bit irritating, inasmuch as it's rather flat. Serkis aside, the other performances are fine but no more. It moves around trying to give an impression of Dury's relationships and the background to his intense punk behaviour. We don't get a particularly fleshed out impression of the late 1960s - 80s (not least as there's a horrible anachronistic yellow-hatched 1990s 'no-stopping' road marking in shot during a 70s sequence). The montage/stage-show sequences don't tell us much about the man as they are strangely solipsistic to the biopic itself.Of the two British rock biopics released this year, Nowhere Boy is still a more even, detailed and satisfying film than this. 4/10