Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Ross Care What We Did On Our Holiday is one of those "dysfunctional" family films, the positive ending of which can be spotted in the first half hour. The film, by a pair of Brit sitcom writer/directors, has garnered some positive reviews and I'm a fan of David Tennant - I just saw him in Don Juan in Soho when I was in London - but I found most of the characters here just irritating, especially the trio of precocious and potentially neurotic kids who never seem to have heard the word "no."The plot does indeed chronicle the London family's Scotland holiday to visit the husband's brother and father. A running gag is the attempt to keep the couple's upcoming divorce hush-hush. But of course the kids are not good at keeping secrets of any kind, or at keeping their mouths shut at all.Additional complications involve the feisty, free spirited grandfather who is in the last stages of cancer. Then, as one of the reviews noted, "it gets weird." Part of the weirdness arises from the son's obsession with Vikings and from his watching the historical epic, The Vikings, on TV. (It might be noted that this film raised the bar for graphic violence in mainstream films in 1958. There is even an in-joke when a bit from the musical score, the Viking horn call, is quoted).Finally the kids come up with an unusual way to deal with the grandfather's death, a solution which one would think might have serious legal consequences (which are briefly raised but finally just dismissed). But certainly the groundwork for years of therapy and analysis has been laid, issues which are blithely ignored in the final cheery conclusion set to feel-good blue grass music.A sequel dealing with the characters years down the line might prove more interesting than this weird-ed-out Holiday.

cmcastl I have submitted several reviews to this site, all accepted, but never before have I rated a film nought out of ten.K... so the concept not of reporting the death of your grandfather to you parents etc. but giving him a Viking burial, because one of the children has, however they came by them, Viking values, should not have legal consequences is improbable enough but it is also in my view perverted. The only good thing I can say about this film is that it is about the best argument for staying single and without children I have ever come across. Or at least staying away from becoming entangled with middle- class London women, even if they are as pretty as Rosamund Pike. Nuff said.

Spikeopath What We Did on Our Holiday is written and directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. It stars Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Amelia Bullmore, Emilia Jones, Bobby Smalldridge, Harriet Turnbull and Celia Imrie. Music is by Alex Heffes and cinematography by Martin Hawkins."The truth is, every human being on this planet is ridiculous in their own way. So we shouldn't judge, we shouldn't fight, because in the end... in the end, none of it matters. None of the stuff"Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin spin off from their hugely popular sit-com, Outnumbered, to produce this funny, philosophical and moving picture. Tennant and Pike play parents of three young children, they are pending a divorce, but with Doug's (Tennant) father, Gordie (Connolly), dying of cancer, the family head to Scotland for what will surely be his last birthday party. Hoping to put on a united front so as to not upset Gordie any further, nobody could envisage what was to happen next...It's a film that some no doubt find easy to kick, such is the uncomplicated structure used, and the formula of messaging that drives it forward. Yet sometimes uncomplicated is all you need, and in this day and age of mega-buck blockbusters and soulless frat type comedies grasping at sex for laughs, this is a film of refreshing qualities. It's superbly performed by what is a top notch group of adult British actors, who in turn are supplemented by three child actors so natural and engaging it makes you wonder if acting school is really needed?It's obviously a piece that will resonate more with those who have been touched/stung by the thematics at work, while the comedy ticking away - with some truly great lines uttered - could seem a bit off kilter for the unprepared, but hopefully more will watch it, laugh and cry and ultimately realise that life really is too short for, well, you get the picture I'm sure. 8/10

Neddy Merrill Pro tip: like "Ondine" - the Irish fairy tale story about seal people - you are going to need to turn on your close captioning to fight your way through the Scottish accents in this family dramedy about a family falling apart. It will be well worth it as the film includes a host of excellent one-liners often delivered by children (Father: "so you have a big rock that protects you from other big rocks?" Daughter: "yes, just like in real life."). The surprisingly aging comedian Billy Connelley plays the dying patriarch whom the family goes to visit on their holiday as the parent cope to create a soft landing for the children from their impending divorce. Hilarity ensues. Much of it that farcical manners comedy where people act in a way that best serves the comedy rather than reflecting the actual way people behave. Given the age of the children, some of the divorce drama (Pike's character screams: "Wallace is the name of the man I'm screwing" in front of them) gets uncomfortable and when played for laughs makes the audience uncomfortable. Still, anything the exquisite Pike stars in can't not be worth viewing. In short, a good little foreign film if you can follow the dialog.