ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Benjamin Philipp (Benjamin_Philipp) Beautiful is the first word that comes to mind for me. Story telling in this movie is so well done, you can watch it several times and find nothing but confirmation. Shifts away from reality (through different kinds of animation) are used to ease in and out of the memories of an agoraphobe, reliving the story of what made him a shut-in; also signifying a reluctance to relive said story. The hand crafted animations and interesting characters in this well written story of the travels of two best friends add to the overall feeling of watching a well presented story unfold from the comforts of your couch (and your safe home) Love to detail, a really pleasant tempo and good actors weave a really well done picture.

Growlyted I love surreal films and this was one I overlooked. I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. The trailer doesn't really do it justice. My favourite cameo actor was Julian Barratt of the Boosh. (I was disappointed with Noel's scene though.) Also pleased to see Richard Ayoade. While these two provide light relief, the main story-line is dark and traumatic. It is accompanied by bizarre animated sequences and an excellent soundtrack by the Ralfe Band. Stephen and Bunny's loyal and tortured relationship is at the heart of this film though. Their adventure is revealed through Stephen's memories stored up in his flat. They are imaginatively linked. The conclusion is perfect.

scarletminded I got this movie because I do like The Mighty Boosh and also the IT Crowd. Since the DVD case had a quote talking about how Bunny and the Bull was one of the most innovative British comedic films of the decade, it had a lot to live up to and it stopped short.I did watch a marathon of Darkplace today, OK, it was a short marathon, but still, maybe this made me think Bunny and The Bull would be non-stop hi-jinx and laughters away. It started out well, with a guy who lives in his house and won't go outside. The scene where he finds his food marked with the days of the week eaten by mice then has to call the crab place for some depressing veggie mix is funny. It doesn't pick up speed from there. It goes from this well developed space to being awkward (but not even in a funny way) and less interesting.Simon Farnaby, who reminds me of Julian Barratt from The Mighty Boosh and even played a double of Howard Moon (called Harold Moon) in one of my favorite episodes, The Power of the Crimp, is the funniest part of the film. I don't think he's given much to work with but tries to make it as funny as possible. Basically, if you laugh, 90% of the time, it will be him doing it. The lead, Edward Hogg, reminds me a lot of Noel Fielding, the two of them could be brothers. Noel Fielding plays Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh as the other main character to Howard Moon. So, this reminds me a lot of The Mighty Boosh with its actors and creative style. Yet, it isn't funny like the Mighty Boosh is. Picking two guys who look like the leads in his TV series, makes me wonder if Paul King didn't take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to the two guys having crazy adventures route.The road trip idea sounds like a good one, especially if done without leaving the house. I love the sets and the Michel Gondry-ness of it all. It does have a sort of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vibe, but the opposite way, as Stephen the Shut-In (Hogg), reflects on his trip to Europe with Bunny (Farnaby). I was pretty sure what had happened to Bunny as Stephen had flashbacks every time he opened the eye piece on his door to look out...and it wasn't happy. There is a scene too, where a cartoon horse that stumbles so our hero's horse can win and they can go to Europe. But then the stumbled horse gets shot with a slash of red on the screen which isn't very funny or tragic, it's plain odd. I suppose it is meant to be ironic, but it's jarring to me. I am not really sure what the point of the movie was, other than to have Stephen go outside again and face his fears of the world. I mean, that could have been done in a more dramatic or funny way, this movie doesn't do either. It sort of sits on the fence, not wanting to make a choice. I do get how this movie is supposed to be in a mind and the mind can get tragedy mixed with comedy in odd ways, like a dream...so why I am not liking this? Even the bull part was Fisher King-like and I liked The Fisher King. This has so much I like in it, yet I can't get into its world and it is so frustrating! Perhaps this wasn't supposed to be a comedy. Or maybe it's a drama with black comedy elements that I didn't get completely. But I like movies like that. I like The Mighty Boosh, Darkplace and IT Crowd. I like dark comedies. This film is totally marketed wrong from the quotes on the DVD. I would expected a little less laughs if this was marketed more like a depressing drama or deep yet quirky (meaning not a whole lot of laughs) indie film.It plays like a depressing Mighty Boosh. Think of Mighty Boosh, then take the humor out for the most part and have it play like a serious deep yet quirky (meaning not that funny) indie film and there you go! :) OK, add in the fact that the Harold Moon like guy in this one gets the girls and the Vince Noir like guy doesn't and is a shut in...it's all about the same for me. This could have easily been a Mighty Boosh film with a few script edits. Overall, I didn't hate or love this film, I am sort of neutral to it, hence the 5. I watched it all the way through and didn't turn it off, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone either. Maybe it was just high hopes! If Paul King wasn't so good with other projects, I wouldn't be so judgmental!

Ali Catterall The boy was on holiday in Rome, having dinner with his parents at a restaurant. An Italian restaurant. When in Rome and all that. The lobster was in the restaurant too, but it wasn't on holiday. Shortly it would be executed by boiling water; a hot corpse to be dissected on the boy's plate. This was unacceptable to the lobster. As the waiter carried the lobster over to the boy's table, the pathetic creature decided to make a break for it. Wriggling out of the waiter's tongs, it smacked head-first into a low-hanging light bulb. The bulb shattered, hot shards raining down on the five-year-old's head. To this day, 'Mighty Boosh' director Paul King won't touch seafood. It's no coincidence that in King's debut feature, Bunny And The Bull, the most revolting European chain restaurant he can conceive of is called 'Captain Crab', serving up slimy portions of barely-dead crustacean.But back to that lobster for a moment: it doesn't take an armchair psychologist to drum up a corollary between the surreal and often fraught comedy of Bunny, and The Boosh, and that traumatic childhood incident. The plot of Bunny And The Bull does indeed deal with how painful memories can adversely affect our present outlook. If King can't go near shellfish again, his paranoid, agoraphobic creation Stephen 'Bull' Turnbull (played by Edward Hogg) can't seem to leave his Kings Cross flat for fear of something awful happening. This is a man so terrified of the unexpected, and of that which he cannot control, he has turned his dismal flat into a virtual mausoleum, stacking his own pee in jars, "and noting its PH".The reasons behind his self-incarceration are soon revealed: an ultimately doomed European road trip taken with his toxic best friend Bunny (Simon Farnaby). Initially taking in such genuine museums as The German Museum of Cutlery and the National Shoe Museum of Poland (your laconic tour guide, one Richard Ayoade), Bunny decides his lovesick friend requires more stimulating adventures, and soon they're picking up a sexy Spanish waitress Eloisa (Verónica Echegui), stealing stuffed bears and encountering a barking mad Hungarian tramp called Atilla (Julian Barratt), who much prefers to drink his dog's milk directly from the dog.Given the presence of the latter, and of a pleasingly restrained Noel Fielding who also cameos here as a booze-sodden matador, the real shocker is that this isn't in fact 'Boosh: The Movie' (which at time of writing, is apparently in the works). This, despite featuring - and apparently in all coincidence - a pale, long-haired man and a hairy Yorkshireman pottering through a surreal hyperverse. (If this were made in the 1960s, Frank Zappa and 'Monkees' creator Bob Rafelson would surely be exec-producing.) Instead, this movie utterly belongs to Hogg and Farnaby, who act out an anarchic and surprisingly touching meditation on male friendship, impotent bravado, and grief. Perhaps unsurprisingly, King's a huge fan of Bruce Robinson's classic, and there are various allusions throughout ("Sure I can't tempt you with one last little drink?" asks Bunny as the mismatched pair bid their farewells). Making the association explicit, the producers have even dubbed this one "Withnail & I for the mentally ill" - as if the latter weren't also conceived in the white heat of a near-nervous collapse. At any rate, as with Withnail, and the comedy of duo Oram and Meeten, there's deeper stuff going here on than just a bunch of stoner-style antics.All this is played out against part-animated, endlessly inventive handcrafted backdrops, including an underpass made from newspaper, a fairground made from clock parts and a bull made out of cutlery - not to mention a bravura credit sequence, which utilises everything in Stephen's flat from pocket calculators to postage stamps. If the most obvious aesthetic comparisons are to be drawn with the work of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Terry Gilliam, fans of animation will be reminded of Czech surrealist Jan 'vankmajer, and even Oliver Postgate and FilmFair - responsible for bringing 'Bagpuss', 'The Wombles' and 'Paddington' to life on British televisions during the 1970s.An equally indelible impression is left by Simon Farnaby's cheerfully disgusting shagger-gambler, who with his second-hand sheepskin coat, and accompanying stench of mid-strength own brand lager resembles some disgraced 1970s polytechnic lecturer, or a younger version of the cult comedian Charlie Chuck. He also looks as if he's carrying at least three varieties of STD - if those STDs happened to be uniquely English ones.