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Back in the 1980s, actor Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt) hit the
big time with the TV series Mindhorn, where he played a crime
investigator on the Isle of Man who has a lie detector iplanted in his eye
- but the 80s are long gone, and an attempt to make it in Hollywood led to
nil. So when Richard gets a call from the Isle of Man to help the police
in a real life kjidnapping case, he's ecstatic ... because of the
publicity, mainly. Basically, his job is to pretend to be Mindhorn to
negotiate with a delusional kidnapper, Melly (Russell Tovey), who thinks
Mindhorn is real and insists to only talk to him. Thorncroft almost messes
that up, but ultimately the police arrests Melly. Richard then tries to
get back together with his old flame and screen partner Patricia (Essie
Davis), mainly because she has become a successful TV journalist in the
meantime, but finds out she's now married to his stunt double, Clive
(Simon Farnaby), and he tries to meet up with his sidekick from the
series, Peter Easterman (Steve Coogan) again, mainly because he has since
found fame and fortune in a Mindhorn spin-off series - but
Easterman sees nothing but a has-been in Thorncroft. And after a night of
too heavy partying with his former PR man Geoffrey (Richard McCabe),
Thorncroft is pretty much deported from the island, when he finds among
the fan mail he's collected while here there's a tape that doesn't only
prove Melly's innocence but also reveals the real culprit to be the mayor
(Nicholas Farrell). Thorncroft takes the tape to Geoffrey, but Geoffrey
has the idea rather than to turn the tape over as a publicity stunt for
Thorncroft he could replace the tape and blackmail the mayor. So
eventually, Thorncroft's attempt to redeem Melly ends in disaster, but
somehow he can spring Melly anyhow, while Geoffrey's blackmail attempt
gets him killed. Thorncroft knows that he and Melly are now next on the
list, having seen the tape, but whatever Thorncroft tries to clean up the
situation seems to only get him into more trouble ...
There are parts of Mindhorn that are nothing short of
great, especially the many references to 80s action TV are hilarious, and
very well staged, too, bringing just the right vibe to these segments.
Unfortunately, not all the film's that good, much of the story's just a
bit too far-fetched, even for a comedy, the humour's all too often
hit-or-miss, and the ending is just too Hollywood to satisfy in the least.
Still, the film's totally worth a few chuckles - just unfortunately not
too many laughs.
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