not horrible nor great

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

What makes this film so funny is that those of us who have been in the workforce have seen many of the things shown in this film. OK, so they are exaggerated...a little. But many of us have seen something similar happening in our places of work, especially during the 1970s. In real life I have seen the Marx-reading shop steward, full of his own self importance; the works committee plotting the employer's downfall; people secreted away playing not only cards, but desktop football, Mastermind and chess; the remarks written (or pictures drawn) in the suggestions box; the animosity towards the time-and-motions man; and, yes, the management deliberately provoking a strike, because they could make more money (or lose less) by having the workforce out on strike than they could by having the factory open.Among the cast, are Peter Sellers playing the hard-headed shop steward; Ian Carmichael as the simple upper-class twit, who finds himself mucking-in with the workers; Terry Thomas as the quiet-life-loving personnel manager Among the minor characters, are Wally Patch as the not-much-worker who hates authority; Sam Kydd as the union man who stutters his F's and C's; Malcolm Muggeridge slipping away while there's a riot in the TV studio; the great character actor, Marne Maitland, as the corrupt cigar-stealing, fez-wearing diplomat.The film also looks at the confectionery industry. Note that one of the machines in the num-yum factory has two eyes a nose and a mouth, and the machine spews up the mix from its mouth, while Ian Carmichael does likewise shortly afterwards. Note also the factory worker sneezing over a tray of num-yums. (Oh, they not only sneeze over food, I've seen them urinate in cases of chocolate biscuits and spit in sandwiches. You'll never want to eat again!)You can't help but love this film.

To watch this film, you would think that Britain is the center of the universe. Never once do they mention any other country, such as Canada, America, Argentina or Iceland. No, it's all about Britain, Britain, Britain (oh, and Russia). And missiles, missiles, missiles. There are lots of speeches about how important missile production and exports are to the economy of Britain (or is it England, or Great Britain, or GB, or U.K.? I do wish you UKers would make up your mind!) I'm All Right Jack is fine, if you like listening to lots of patriotic propaganda, which I, being an American, love to do. Now I can see why you Brits are always assuming Hollywood is an extension of the U.S. Department of Propaganda and Patriotism, because that's what Pinewood Studios is. I keep reading reviews by Brits complaining about how every American movie they are FORCED to watch is nothing but more American propaganda that doesn't even give credit to England for all the contributions you Englanders have made to civilization over the centuries, like inventing Shakespeare, tabloid journalism and blancmange. Well, America makes missiles, too. How come American missile production wasn't worked into the plot? And we've got unions, too. Why not have an American union official working at the missile plant as a sort of union exchange program, kinda like the role Peter Sellers had in Dr. Strangelove? Now, there's a fine patriotic American war movie that even included a Brit and a Russian in the plot, so quit complaining, England!Peter Sellers delivers a subtle, dramatic performance of the harried union leader whose wife and daughter move out, leaving him to fend for himself, with results along the lines of The Odd Couple, as his boss darns his socks for him.The movie, and in particular the television talk show, Argument, is a remarkably realistic depiction of life in Great Britain today. A rich twit (is "twit" the right word to describe Stanley Windrush? I picked up the odd bit of vocabulary from your excellent documentary television program, Monty Python) seeks fame and fortune in the noble calling of Industry, not too heavy and not too light, wanting at least one afternoon off per week. (Spoiler alert) Yet in the eyes of his co- workers and union members, he is working too hard and seems a mite worn out, so he is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to Coventry with a bag of cash, a gift from his boss and union. From this it is safe to assume that all Brits are lazy union members, except for the moneyed upper classes, who are lazy twits, and Stanley Windrush, who is a hard working, hard driving forklift driver.But no good deed goes unpunished, and Windrush dumps the cash on the table during an argument on Argument, causing a stampede in front of the cameras. He gets arrested for being a pain in the ass, which is illegal in the United Kingdom, and is sentenced to a year in a very realistically portrayed nudist colony. There, he gets chased across a field by all the pretty girls, wanting him to play with them. That's what happens to me, too, every time I go to a nudist resort. It's torture, and a fitting punishment for the evil Windrush, (spoiler alert) who dies when the union shop steward at Missiles Ltd. targets the nudist colony with a missile that fell off the back of a truck. Serves them right, too. As we all know, Brits are a bunch of preverts practicing their preversion. Have a nice day.

I'm All Right Jack is directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney. It's based on the novel Private Life by Hackney and is a sequel to the Boulting's 1956 film Private's Progress. Returning from the first film are Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas, Victor Madden & Miles Malleson. While Peter Sellers (BAFTA for Best Actor) and a ream of British comedy actors of the time make up the rest of the cast.Looking to force a crooked deal, Bertram Tracepurcel (Price) and his cohort Sydney de Vere Cox (Attenborough) convince Major Hitchcock (Thomas), the personnel manager at the local missile factory, to hire Tracepurcel's nephew, Stanley Windrush (Carmichael), knowing full well that his earnest and wet behind the ears approach to work will cause fractions within the work force. Then it's expected that Bolshoi shop steward Fred Kite (Sellers) will call a strike that will see the crooked plan to fruition.Between 1956 and 1963 the Boulting brothers produced a number of satirical movies, I'm All Right Jack is arguably the finest of the bunch. Given that it's now admittedly a dated time capsule, for some of the dialogue would simply be shot down in this day and age, one has to judge and value it for the time it was made. The first and most striking thing about the film is that nobody escapes the firing line, this is not merely a device to kick the trade unions with {and a kicking they do get}, but also the government, the media, big industries and the good old chestnut of the old school brigade. All are in the sights of the Boulting's and the team. The overriding message being that all of them are out for themselves, self-interest and feathering of ones nest is the order of the times.Also winning a BAFTA was the screenplay, with that you still need the cast to do do it justice. Ian Carmichael was an undervalued performer in that he was an unselfish actor feeding set ups to his costars. That is never more evident than it is here where the likes of Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, Liz Fraser & Victor Madden benefit greatly playing off of Carmichael's toff twit twittering. But it's Sellers movie all the way. Which considering he didn't want to do the movie originally, saying he couldn't see the role of Kite being funny, makes his turn all the more special. Studying for weeks labour leaders and politico types, Sellers, with suit too tight, cropped hair and a Hitler moustache, nails the pompous militancy of the shop steward leader. It doesn't stop there, couple it with the contrast of Kite's home life, where the Boulting's are slyly digging away at facades, and you get a two side of the coin performance that's a joy from start to finish.Very much like Ealing's sharp 51 piece, The Man In The White Suit, this is cynical, but classy, British cinema across the board. Throwing punches and with cheek unbound, I'm All Right Jack has razor sharp teeth from which to take a bite of the comedy pie with. 9/10

Ah, progress. Never mind that tosh. "I'm All Right Jack" is a hilarious send up of the 20th century very much on point today, an anything-goes capitalist-meets-socialist system where workers and owners are equally victimized.Peter Sellers won the British Academy Award for Best British Actor for his performance as union leader Fred Kite, beating out a field that year which included Laurence Olivier, Laurence Harvey, Richard Burton, and Peter Finch. Ian Carmichael is the actual lead actor in "I'm All Right Jack", and Kite doesn't even show up until after the first 20 minutes, but Sellers makes Kite a compelling and comedic character worth remembering as a symbol of organized labor run amuk.A kind of sequel to "Private's Progress", also featuring Carmichael in the role of Stanley Windrush, "I'm All Right Jack" is a swinging social satire. Two factory owners (played by Dennis Price and Richard Attenborough) conspire to create a labor strike at a munitions factory to get a higher price. To do that, they need someone to create a bit of friction. Enter Windrush, a total innocent upper-class twit who only cares about earning his pay, no matter how much that offends Kite and other labor leaders."We're living in the welfare state," says the middle manager Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas). "I call it the farewell state.""I'm All Right Jack" starts out very cheeky indeed, with a surprising eyeful of female nudity circa 1959 and cracks at religion and the military. Later, a stuttering character sees an array of photographers and asks: "Why don't you tell them to f-f-f-photograph something worthwhile."The only major problem with "I'm All Right Jack" is the slowness of the film right up until Windrush arrives at Missiles Ltd., after which the comedy becomes a kind of classless class comedy, where shrapnel flies thick and fast and no one is immune. Sellers' performance is brilliant, giving you a character who's likable even as he plays the antagonist. You can scorn his love of Stalinist Russia, which he boils down to cornfields and ballet, but you empathize with his fairness (not wanting to fire Windrush is his undoubted downfall) and his sensitivity for the feelings of Mrs. Kite (Irene Handl) and their daughter (Liz Fraser). He's just a bit extreme."We cannot and do not accept the principle that incompetence justifies dismissal," Kite argues. "That is victimization."The real bad guys are the bosses guying the system, though John Boulting, who directed and co-wrote this with Alan Hackney and Frank Harvey, wants you to see the union abuses that make such a scam not only possible but desirable to the upper classes.Sellers also appears at the film's outset as "Sir John", a men's-club inhabitant who witnesses the end of World War II as an unpleasant upending of the old social order, before disappearing in the postwar wake. "A solid block in what seemed the edifice of an ordered and stable society," is his postscript.Contrast him with the very hip, 60s-sounding Al Saxon theme song that sticks its post-war, pre-Beatles attitude in your face as smartly as flipping the bird to Churchill (something else we get to see in the first few minutes), and you find yourself watching what had to be for 1959 a very mod film. It still stands up today as one of the best labor-management comedies, even if the British class system it addresses is no more.