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Kevin & Perry Go Large

Director: Ed Bye

Cast: Harry Enfield, Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans, Laura Fraser, James Fleet

Success doesn't always last forever. This is particularly true of English actor/comedian Harry Enfield. In the 90s, he dominated British TV with his hugely successful sketch shows Harry Enfield's Television Program (1990) and Harry Enfield and Chums (1994-1997). The latter, in particular, made Enfield a household name and introduced a whole range of weird and wonderful characters who are still popular today. The most famous of his creations are Kevin and Perry, from the sketch ‘Kevin the teenager' which was a satirical look at teenagers and the stereotypes associated with them. Enfield played Kevin, a lazy, bad tempered adolescent who would refuse to do as his parents asked. His best friend Perry was played, very convincingly, by actress Kathy Burke. Together, the two got into scrapes such as holding a party that led to ‘bigger boys' stealing Kevin's belongings, and unsuccessfully trying to get into nightclubs.

The characters became so well known, that the term ‘Kevin the teenager' entered British culture, used to describe an adolescent who is bad tempered or impolite. So as you can imagine, Enfield didn't want to get rid of the characters once the show ended. Therefore plans were set for a film follow up, and Kevin & Perry Go Large was born.

In the film, Kevin and Perry decide they want to go to Ibiza for their summer holiday in the hope of losing their virginities and getting the chance to play their anthem ‘Big Girl' in one of its nightclubs. However, they're horrified to discover that Kevin's parents (Fleet and Louisa Rix) are coming along too. Once on the island, the boys meet an arrogant, abusive DJ called Eye Ball Paul (Ifans) and spot the girls of their dreams (Fraser and Tabitha Wady).

There is so much that's wrong with this film that it's difficult to know how to start. But I think its biggest problem is just how different the style of comedy in it is to that of the sketches. While the TV show cleverly poked fun at teenage life, the film's main goal seems to be throwing as many gross-out gags as it can at the screen in 80 minutes. It's literally as if Harry Enfield sat down and watched gross-out teen sex comedies non stop all day then forgot how to write the kind of jokes that made him famous in the first place. There are no glimpses of originality throughout its entire running time, it ends up as a bizarre hybrid of Dumb & Dumber and American Pie only with less sophisticated jokes. The jokes in question include; Kevin swallowing Perry's shit, Perry secretly filming Kevin's parents having sex, Kevin masturbating in his sleep, a ‘makeover' scene which features zit squeezing and a lot of pus, Perry fancying (having a crush on) Kevin's mum, the pair getting covered in vomit, and about a dozen boner gags. Look, Harry, after the fifth time it's not funny anymore!

Another thing that doesn't work is that Enfield and Burke aren't convincing as teenage boys like they were in the show. The wigs aren't as good and they just look so much older. If you didn't know that the characters are supposed to be teenage boys, you'd think they were just a middle-aged couple. The other big problem with these characters is that Enfield has made them dumber in the hope of making them funnier. Kevin now talks to girls in a voice that I think is supposed to be a Sean Connery impression to try and impress them, and Perry spends most of the film looking spaced-out and making stupid comments. If he'd kept the characters the same they could have made this experience slightly more bearable.

The biggest offence comes at the end of the film. Ifan's character takes Kevin, Perry and the two girls to the nightclub and lets the duo play their mix. However, he sabotages it by playing the video of Kevin's parents having sex on the big screens behind them. This horrifies Kevin's mum and dad (who are in the club watching the pair play the song), but the crowd actually prefers this to the boring song that Eyeball Paul wants to play. This scene COULD have been funny if the video of Kevin's parents wasn't so graphic. You can see them clearly having sex. If the joke had been done like in that episode of Friends where Monica accidentally watches the video of her parents having sex it would have worked.

After that, predictably, the boys end up getting laid by Candice and Gemma as part of a beach orgy and before the end credits are seen as famous DJs signing books in a store. And, in another terrible joke, it turns out Kevin's parents have also written a book entitled ‘Better mid-marriage sex.'

Kevin & Perry Go Large is without a doubt one of the most embarrassing films I've ever had to sit through. I say it's embarrassing because it's one of many poor ‘comedies' that the British film industry has produced. The production company behind this has gone on to produce the atrocious I Want Candy and St Trinian's, which has a sequel in production. British production companies have no problem putting money into trash like this, but the wonderful Son of Rambow had to get all it's money from France. Thank god we have Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright!