BBC Video // 2010 // 180 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge Brett Cullum // March 15th, 2012
A high-flying new comedy.
All you need to know about Come Fly with Me is that Little Britain creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams are joining forces once again to make a mockumentary about an airport and its three fictional airlines. The boys play almost all the staff and passengers of FlyLo (a low-cost airline), Our Lady Air (an Irish low-cost airline), and Great British Air (a major international airline), including women, pilots, and employees of all races and cultures. It's a randy spoof of the "fly on the wall" reality series Airport which was quite popular in Britain.
When Come Fly with Me debuted in 2010, many viewers complained the series was racist, and they may have a point. Matt and David seemed to relish in dealing in stereotypes (both positive and negative) with their characters, which includes strong envelope-pushing in all directions. At times the show seems homophobic, anti-women, and anti-religion. Must make for brilliant comedy, right? Not really. My biggest gripe is the comedy has such a narrow focus it seems to limit David and Matt. The whole thing feels constrained, because it's all airline jokes and airport humor. The guys are still masters at creating characters, but they all seem far too similar to really take off.
Come Fly with Me: Season One features all six first season episodes and a "making of" special. The standard definition 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers look just fine, considering most of it was filmed to look like a cobbled together documentary. The Dolby 2.0 Stereo is equally serviceable and includes English subtitles for those harder to decipher character dialects. The only bonus feature, aside from the extra episode, is a photo gallery.
Fans of Little Britain will find this a nice addendum to that groundbreaking series. It's not quite as ambitious or funny, but does provide quite a few giggles and the occasional guffaw. Sensitive viewers may find all the stereotypes offensive, but then they aren't likely to be sitting through this satire in the first place.
Guilty of being a funny look at air travel.
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Scales of Justice
Judgment: 82
Perp Profile
Studio: BBC Video
Video Formats:
* 1.78:1 Anamorphic
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)
Subtitles:
* English
Running Time: 180 Minutes
Release Year: 2010
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* Featurette
* Photo Gallery
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1749004/combined