The greatest movie ever made..!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The Wind in the Willows is a live action adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's famous book. A nervous Mole (Lee Ingleby) emerges from his hole and ventures out to the river where he encounters Ratty (Mark Gatiss) who takes him on a boat trip. They get taken on a caravan ride by Toad of Toad Hall (Matt Lucas) who then goes dashing about recklessly in a motorcar.Mole and Ratty join up with Badger (Bob Hoskins) to save Mr Toad from his reckless need for speed but he ends up in jail and then the weasles take over his manor.This is a fun family drama directed with some style by Rachel Talalay. Hoskins is suitably grumpy as Badger, Lucas is manic as Toad. There are some nice cameos from actors such as Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton. However the weasels were a letdown.

I've already seen three different film versions of Kenneth Grahame's lovely story and I saw this version on Watch (a digital TV channel in the UK)on Christmas Eve 2009.The only people I've heard of were Bob Hoskins (Badger), Imelda Staunton (the barge lady) and Matt Lucas (Toad). Some parts reminded me of the 1983 stop-motion version, the 2D animated version from around 1995 and an abridged version of the story (retold by Lesley Sims), but this is probably the most unique version of them all. Matt Lucas and Bob Hoskins played a convincing Toad and Badger respectively, but I didn't know the majority of actors in this film at all.Matt's performance as Toad was the funniest thing in this film and it was well-acted by everyone else too. It's just a shame that there was no focus on Rat and Mole's riverside picnic. 9/10

Venturing out from his underground home, Mole joins Ratty for a river trip. They come across the rich Mr Toad, who has taken up caravanning as a new hobby. However this hobby is replaced by a new one when he is run off the road by a motorcar – sparking a new passion in his life. While Badger, Mole and Ratty try to cure Toad of his car obsession, the weasels use it against him in order to get the deeds to Toad Hall.That this was screened on New Years Day in the early evening slot should give you a clue about what to expect from this version. On the final day of the Christmas holiday, this is aimed at families with the parents enjoying the final day off work, looking for something warm, familiar and undemanding to watch that has enough of a family glow and wholesome feel to it to do the job. And that is just what this delivers nad it has the perfect material to do it with since Wind in the Willows is a family classic that many of us have affection for. Of course that is not saying that it is brilliant (it is not) but rather it is just safe family warmth without too much to really mark it out or justify watching it when not in a turkey-and-wine-induced stupor. The plot is well known and the film delivers it with a "jolly-old-England" air and light humour but not much else. It isn't that funny or inventive but again it does what it needed to do. Fans might also be narked that the weasels are squeezed into a silly panto action conclusion which seems like an afterthought for all concern.Visually the film looks good and the minimal design of the characters was a nice touch. The sets look good but the jump-edits and backgrounds were modern touches that jarred with the rest of the film and didn't work – the very occasional use of special effects were terrible too. The cast has one or two "holiday BBC family drama" faces in there to draw the audience but nobody does that well. Lucas hams it up in the main role and he seems to be enjoying himself. He will amuse children but he is closer to "silly" than "funny" from where I was coming from. Gatiss is a solid "Oxford-type" as Ratty and he is OK without being distinguished; likewise Ingleby's mole – good but not really memorable. Hoskins was a good piece of casting and he gives good badger with his constant grump. The weasels are poor characters and not that well delivered by a group cast for their tumbling ability rather than anything else but small turns from Staunton and a few others are amusing.Overall then a warm and basic bit of family entertainment that more or less did the job over the Christmas holidays by being pitched at a sedated family audience on their last day off work together and recovering from a New Year's Eve hangover. However it is not good enough to offer much if you are approaching it without this reduced set of requirements, not being funny, imaginative or engaging enough to stick in the mind even an hour after watching it. Of course it isn't helped by me having the memory of the 1996 version which, to be blunt, sh1ts on this version. OK it was floated down the river by Disney but it is better in almost every way and should be sought out by anything considering watching this because this 2006 version isn't a patch on it.

The Wind In The Willows' latest BBC adaptation is definitely an enjoyable watch - even if it is just for Matt Lucas's depiction of Toad of Toad Hall. Some nice settings and good historical settings (this is meant to be set in the 1920s) ensure that this isn't just stupid fun for thick kids. But unfortunately, the show's main sense of humour lies in Matt Lucas' ability to make stupid noises and just generally be an idiot - a shortage of sharp wit or cruel sarcasm is a shame and ensure that this will only be fully enjoyed by lovers of Little Britain. But to be honest, this wasn't meant to be the Beeb's latest comedy breakthrough. This was made purely to entertain the family for 100 minutes. And revisiting old classic tales has always done that. There's also a bit of human emotion in the film - from Mole (or was it Badger? I don't know), who wishes he had a real home and a real family again, as testified to a number of times in the film. But as I said earlier, most people would only watch this for Matt Lucas anyway, and he's great as the massively over-the-top, scheming and barmy Toad of Toad Hall. He brings the technology-obsessed Toad to the screen with his own unique humorous signature and manages to help make these 100 minutes very enjoyable indeed. Some of it is well made (take the dream sequence with the floating boat which bordered on Lord of the Rings quality), and some of it is a bit duff (take the CG plane at the end, although this manages to help the film reach the conclusion it wanted), but it is all very fun, and the BBC have thrown a few million out of their money pot in the right direction. Some photography is neat and on the whole, this film is nice to look at. It would have been more original if the story had taken a more mature and adult twist instead of being aimed solely at the whole family - after all, Matt Lucas does specialise in adult comedy. Unfortunately, it's practically all family friendly and there ain't much to satisfy a mature audience, although some guns and fighting at the end help to keep it slightly away from PC-mush-land. But who cares? The Wind In The Willows is a family story, and with Narnia-esquire photography in parts, this will be two hours that you won't regret sitting through. And I must admit, I did chuckle when Toad pranged his car. 7/10