Fackham Hall

A proper attempt at merging "Airplane" with Downton Abbey, FACKHAM HALL has its moments, but is too polite to ever really hit comedy gold.

At least the premise is fun and brisk at a lean 97 minutes.

Lord Davenport (a funny Damian Lewis from "Band of Brothers") and Lady D, (Katherine Waterston) oversee Fackham, a massive, stunning estate in the English Countryside. But they're falling on lean times and running out of money.

Their only hope is for one of their daughters to marry a cousin and continue the bloodline.

When the stunning coat of arms over the entrance of your estate boasts "incest ad infanitum" you get the point. The problem is that the film repeats its jokes, with declining results. While the hit and miss ratio never approaches the wins of "Airplane" or "Top Secret", when it's funny, it's damn funny. It's certainly closer to the Abrahams/Zucker Brothers in spirit than the recent lame Naked Gun reboot.

A big cast of Upstairs/Downstairs regal idiots and servants keep the mild laughs coming.

Ben Radcliffe (Masters of the Air) is terrific as Eric, an 26 year old orphan who still hangs out at the Orphanage while running some serious grifts and pickpocket schemes. When he's assigned to deliver an important letter to Fackham Hall, comedy ensues.

Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) is hilarious as Archibald, an egotistical dope who's the most likely marrying option. The scene where he gets left at the alter for the town's manure salesman is a highlight.

The movie is stolen lock, stock and barrel by the hilarious Jimmy Carr as the local Vicar. Everything he says at the pulpit is delivered in run-on sentences that are funny and foul. Him immediately correcting them is even funnier. Carr knows the assignment here and he executes it perfectly with flawless comic timing.

Anytime he and his little mustache were on screen, the film is at its best.

Fackham also has a lot of fun with rapid fire visual puns that I am sure I only caught half of as they popped on screen. This is the closest to the Zucker Bros the film gets, with lewd and fast humor popping up repeatedly.

Tom Goodman-Hill nails the spirit of the thing with his Inspector Watt. His keen eye for observation serves up some laugh out loud moments.

But the film treads a strange line between too proper and occasional F-bombs that earn the R rating. It would have been so much funnier had the filmmakers committed to either direction.

Like the Davenport family, it's all quite pleasant and mildly amusing on the surface, but never more than slightly enjoyable. A couple of the best bits are stolen directly from Monty Python, including the piano ditty about the willy. Still funny, but not by comparison. Animals falling from the sky will remind you of a certain castle from Holy Grail.

Except for Carr. He nails every bit...

"You may now kiss the choir boys...

Sorry, you may now kiss!

The choir boys will now sing hymn number......"

FACKHAM HALL could have been a lot fackham funnier. It gently titters its way to a C+.

See the red band trailer below for a taste of the brilliant Jimmy Carr's scene stealing humor.