Kevin & Perry Go Large
UK/USA 2000
Reviewed by Mark Sinker
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
London suburbia, the present. Teenage friends and part-time DJs Kevin and Perry are desperate to lose their virginities. Kevin's parents refuse to pay for a holiday in Ibiza, but when Kevin receives a reward for stopping a bank robbery he uses the money to pay for the holiday with Perry. Much to Kevin's disgust, his parents accompany them. At the airport in Ibiza, the boys are besotted with fellow teens Candice and Gemma. They encounter their hero Eye Ball Paul, a Manchester DJ. That night, the boys get into local nightclub Cream/Amnesia; Candice and Gemma are turned away.
Later, Candice and Gemma step out with Kevin and Perry, but the boys leave after being vomited on. At the hotel, Kevin's parents have noisy sex which Perry films. The next day, Eye Ball Paul finds the video and plays it in front of them. Humiliated, the boys flee and fall out, but they make up after hearing their mix will be played at Cream/Amnesia that night. The mix is played - as is the sex video. Eye Ball Paul tries to regain control of his show, but the crowd eject him, and Kevin and Perry become heroes. The girls, also shown on video, love being famous and agree to sex on the beach.
Review
In Zabriskie Point (1968), trance music and adolescent rebellion lead to mass-coupling among the dunes, Michelangelo Antonioni's symbol of the overturning of oppression everywhere. He might have saved himself embarrassment if he'd been allowed a glimpse of today's Ibiza scene. As captured in the sand-and-shagging finale to Kevin & Perry Go Large, this is certainly the mocking apotheosis of the Italian's silly 60s vision, of liberation as a function of youth, beauty and mass-marketed pop-culture cool.
Go Large is an amiable roll through vomit, poo and erections, public-humiliation and hating-your-parents gags, working through the most obvious permutations and a scatter of clever ones. Fans of Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke's characters get pretty much what they are after. Their foray beyond the television-skit format of Harry Enfield and Chums cheerfully enters the revolting world of Farrelly Brothers' humour. Connoisseurs of bodily fluids on screen will doubtless appreciate how the makeover sequence climaxes with a multiple zit-squeezing moneyshot.
It's commonplace to observe that classic British comedy, in its reactionary sitcom glory, always had problems gussying together feature-length plots for the big screen. There were other, far more disabling difficulties. Ever since Tony Hancock's The Rebel (1960), the line has always been that sex, liberation and pop-culture coolness, if they exist anywhere, will certainly never be visited on the viewer. If the 60s countercultural cliché was that the young have better sex than their elders, traditional BritCom could only bleat against such exclusionary cruelty by asserting no one ever has sex anywhere, good or bad. 'Alternative' UK comedy was committed to exorcising this bankrupt tradition, but it needed a less defensive tactic, at least towards sex. The early, punkier manifestation of this revolt adopted an overtly body-loathing puritanism. There's an underlying doughiness to Enfield's many comedy personas which can certainly elicit echoes of this disconcerting self-hatred, but his humour actually springs from a more generous, potentially more subversive solution to the impasse: call it the Comedy of the Redemption of the Naff. So in Go Large, sex and worldly success can even be visited on as gormless a blobling as Perry (Burke's performance is a triumph of amoebic counter-sexuality).
Here, not only do parents have more and better sex than their offspring, but (as important) this seeming nod to reality feels less like the overthrow of comedy convention than the establishment of its potential return. Enfield's achievement is the degree to which he can still comfortably have it both ways. Consider the film's single moment of unspiked grace: Kevin happens on his parents, stock stick-figure caricatures of middle-class normality, amorously duetting each other with the words of 'Wonderwall'. They can't, Kevin screams, have even heard of Oasis: yet the Gallagher brothers have (very publicly) been houseguests of the only British prime minister in modern history to be celebrated for achieving sexually active adulthood. Expressed purely in terms of Kevin's conformism - a risible bondage to outdated assumptions about the 'generation gap' - his apoplectic tirade is also a rant against the mass-media appropriation of all sites of potential revolt, from love's body to underclass mutiny.
Similarly, the Ibiza club has its 'No Monsters' door policy; to highlight the power-glamour of DJ Eye Ball Paul, Kevin and Perry's loutish idol, the acned and the obese are turned away. Intriguingly, the bouncer is a sly cameo from Paul Whitehouse, diffident co-architect and radical conscience of the Enfield school of comedy - but the real monster is the corruptly loutish Manc DJ himself, while his fat, unassuming assistant Baz is the film's secret hero. When Gemma and Candice are refused entry, clubland elitism is revealed as the lie at the heart of pop-culture cool's claim to be a vector of liberation.
Credits
- Director
- Ed Bye
- Producers
- Peter Bennett-Jones
- Jolyon Symonds
- Harry Enfield
- Screenplay
- Harry Enfield
- David Cummings
- Director of Photography
- Alan Almond
- Editor
- Mark Wybourn
- Production Designer
- Tom Brown
- ©Tiger Aspect Pictures Ltd
- Production Companies
- A Tiger Aspect Pictures production in association with Icon Productions and Fragile Films
- An Icon Entertainment International presentation
- Executive Producers
- Bruce Davey
- Ralph Kamp
- Barnaby Thompson
- Line Producer
- Waldo Roeg
- Co-producer
- Paul Tucker
- Production Co-ordinators
- Marshall Leviten
- Spanish Crew:
- Leoni Cotgrove
- Production Manager
- Spanish Crew:
- Rosa Romero
- Unit Manager
- Tanya Harris
- Locations Manager
- Tom Elgood
- Location Manager
- Spanish Crew:
- Estefania Ferrer
- Post-production Supervisor
- Francesca Castellano
- Assistant Directors
- Max Keene
- Matthew Baker
- Joe Geary
- Spanish Crew:
- Chema Linares
- Teresa Andreu
- Script Supervisor
- Ann Edwards
- Casting
- Janey Fothergill
- ADR Voice:
- Artemedia Loops Ltd
- Spanish Crew:
- Tamara Dominguez
- Camera Operators
- Spanish Crew:
- Joan Benet
- Graeme Campbell
- Video Graphics
- Simon Burchill
- Graphics
- Carol Kupitz
- Assembly Editor
- Daryl Jordan
- Art Directors
- Dave Allday
- Spanish Crew:
- Rosa Ros
- Set Decorator
- Brian Read
- Costume Designer
- Denise Simmons
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Charlotte Couchman
- Hair/Make-up Designer
- Ann McEwan
- Chief Hair
- Andrea Finch Pennel
- Title Graphics
- Chris Allies
- Visual Effects/Titles
- Mill Film
- Music Supervisors
- Rupert Lord
- Tom Parkinson
- Tim Binns
- New State Entertainment
- Music Editor
- Richard Todman
- Soundtrack
- "Big Girl", "Big Girl (The Yomanda Remix)", "Big Girl (The Shaft Remix)" by Judge Jules, Harry Enfield, Matt Smith, performed by The Precious Brats, featuring Harry Enfield, Kathy Burke; "I'm in the Mood for Love" by Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields, performed by Jay Kay, Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra; "Sweet Harry", "Emotion" by George Evelyn, Robin Taylor-Firth, performed by Nightmares on Wax; "Eyeball (Eyeball Paul's Theme)" by Matt Darey, performed by Sunburst; "Mi amor" by/performed Phil Pope, performed by Phil Pope and Los Lidos; "The Partee" by Roger Sanchez, Billy Jones, performed by Roger Sanchez; contains a sample from "We Love to Party" performed by Brother to Brother; "Kid" by Chrissie Hynde, performed by Hybrid featuring Chrissie Hynde; "Straight to Hell" by Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, performed by The Clash; "Love Island (4/4 Mix)" by Norman Cook, performed by Fatboy Slim; "Follow Me" by Lange, Cecily Fay, Crosse, performed by Lange featuring Cecily Fay; "Fuck Dub Parts 1 & 2" by Richard Dorfmeister, Rupert Huber, performed by Tosca; "Ooh La La" by Theo Keating, Lalo Schifrin, performed by The Wiseguys; "King of Snake (Fat Boy Slim remix)" by Karl Hyde, Rick Smith, Darren Emerson, performed by Underworld; "I Feel Love (R.A.F. by Picotto remix)" by A. Remondini, Mauro Picotto, performed by CRW; "Barber's Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)" by Samuel Barber, performed by William Orbit; "Toca Me (Original & In Petto mixes)" by Ramon Zenker, Dirk Duderstadt, Marco Duderstadt, performed by Fragma; "Mysteryland (Sickboys Courtyard remix)" by Frédéric de Backer, T.C. Process, DJ Laurent David, performed by Y-TRAXX; "Ayla (Taucher remix)" by Ingo Kunzi, performed by Ayla; "Sunshine" by Julian O'Riordan p.k.a. Judge Jules, Paul Masterson, performed by Yomanda; "Ethnic Majority" by George Evelyn, Robin Taylor-Firth, David Shire, Robert Goldstein, performed by Nightmares on Wax; contains a sample of "Washington Square" performed by James Last; "Release the Bats" by Mick Harvey, Nick Cave, performed by The Birthday Party; "Lizard (Claxxix mix)" by Mauro Picotto, A. Remondini, R. Ferri, G. Bortolotti, performed by Mauro Picotto; "The Look of Love" by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, performed by Gladys Knight; "Crazy Ivan" by Dave Pine, performed by Vervlads; "Chicago" performed by Groove Armada; "Coming on Strong" by R. Hagen, P. Minnaard, S. MacShane, performed by Signum featuring Scott Mac; "Luvstruck" by Verkuylen, Kuyten, Hagenbeek, Hagenbeek, performed by Southside Spinners; "Onslaught" arranged/performed by Dominic Glynn, Martin Smith; "Gaillard" arranged/performed by Laurie Johnson; "Death and the Maiden" arranged/performed by Mike Hankinson; "Insanity" arranged/
performed by Nick Bardoni, Steve Warr; "Elixir" arranged/
performed by Drew Milligan, Stewart Roslyn - Production Sound Mixer
- Chris Munro
- Recordists
- Garry Fifferman
- Ray Hathaway
- Sound Consultant
- Gem Whippey
- Re-recording Mixers
- Tim Cavigan
- Steve Single
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Bjørn Schroeder
- Dialogue Editor
- Matthew Grime
- ADR
- Mixers:
- John Bateman
- Mark Lafbery
- Editor:
- Matthew Grime
- Foley
- Artists:
- Andie Derrick
- Dianne Greaves
- Mixer:
- Edward Colyer
- Editor:
- Alastair Sirkett
- Club Consultant
- James Dark
- Technical Consultant
- Andy Walker
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Ray De Haan
- Andreas Petrides
- Cast
- Harry Enfield
- Kevin
- Kathy Burke
- Perry
- Rhys Ifans
- Eye Ball Paul
- Laura Fraser
- Candice
- James Fleet
- Dad
- Louisa Rix
- Mum
- Tabitha Wady
- Gemma
- Paul Whitehouse
- bouncer 1
- Natasha Little
- Anne Boleyn
- Henry R. Enfield GCE
- executioner
- Anna Shilling Law
- bikini girl
- Badi Uzzaman
- shopkeeper
- Sam Parks
- policeman
- Ken Cranham
- vicar
- Mark Tonderai
- record store boss
- Patsy Byrne
- old lady
- Amelia Curtis
- Sharon
- Christopher Ettridge
- postman
- Frank Harper
- armed robber
- Rupert Vansittart
- bank manager
- Steven O'Donnell
- Big Baz
- Shugs
- man in suitcase
- James Dark
- clubber
- James Murray
- Candice's Adonis
- Steve McFadden
- bouncer 2
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Icon Film Distribution
- 7,482 feet
- 83 minutes 9 seconds
- Dolby
- In Colour
- Prints by
- DeLuxe