Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's not often that i find myself almost pi**ing myself when watching a very dry comedy such as this, but "The Smoking Room" gets me laughing my ass off every time (sorry for the Americanisms).As a sit-com, with a very narrow set of locations (i.e. the smoking room) it can only ever rely on the characters and the script, no big budgets for explosions, morphing into other creatures, blood or CGI in this show :) It does very well with what it has.Like a Leprechaun that manages to get to the pot of gold and becomes the CEO of a multi-national conglomerate, "The Smoking Room" achieves everything that you want from a comedy. Good characters, a great script and amazing acting that makes the script and the characters come to life.Without the characters, script and actors to make it all possible, "The Smoking Room" would merely be a poor attempt at comedy, but when they all come together, as they do in this TV series, comedy genius is created.:-)

This show is just what witty dialog should be. If you don't have a attention span then you probably wouldn't like it, but if you can really listen, it will have you in stitches. It's just so funny because it's what someone would really say without trying to be funny. There's no real plot, its just hilarious people who are very relate-able in a setting that's very relate-able. You can really get to like the characters after a while with a lot of running gags. The punchline at the end of the first episode is pure gold. Why can't there be more shows like this, i mean Clint is one of the funniest characters ever. Just good actors and great lines in very down to earth situations.

The guidelines for posting comments suggest not giving away plot points. Oops, the title gives away ALL the plot points.I wanted to like this, believe me. I thought it was very courageous of the BBC's story/comedy/script commissioners to try to create another success along the lines of "The Office" or "The Royle Family". It was good to see a new writer's work being used. Ultimately, they haven't succeeded.What a waste of such excellent acting talent, particularly, Siobhan Redmond, Paula Wilcox and Robert Webb - they try their best with the material, as does the director - but watching this series is like watching a single joke from an American observational stand-up comedian repeated throughout each and every half-hour episode. I actually started watching as I was hooked by the theme tune during a trailer and I thought it might compare favourably with "The Office". It doesn't even begin to.There are good points, the set for one and the lighting, definitely leave me wheezing! But the situation and, as I have already mentioned, the actors, deserve so much better from the script. It all seems so anal, with an eighties focus in the observations and puerile usage of sexual swear words.This *is* funnier than some recent sitcoms on the BBC, but that is mainly down to the well-drawn, if stereotypical characters; there seems to be very little development of them; as I said, they are well drawn, but it all appears in the first episode. There is a lost opportunity with Robin, the gay character, which I suspect is down to the director rather than the writer: too many of his earlier comments and answers to questions are revealing, by a knowing "look" or reaction close-up; I definitely think the script was attempting some development here. In summary: it's worth a look - choose any episode you like, you'll pick it up in seconds, like, say "Only Fools And Horses", "'Allo 'Allo" or "Are You Being Served?", because it relies on formulaic repetition of conversations, topics and well-worn character prejudices. Script editors and commissioners have a lot to answer for these days.

In every workplace there is a place where the shunned go – a place where people go who have only one thing in common but spend several times a day together nonetheless. They are the office smokers; some hang around outside the building but in this office they have a room together. As the smokers come and go on their various breaks we are treated to all manner of inane discussions, banter and office politics.Although it doesn't help to compare this show to the vastly superior The Office it is hard not to. Not only is it set in the 'real work' much more than most BBC sitcoms but the marketing for it all tried to make sure that we came to this off the back of The Office's fame. Initial disappointment is pretty much guaranteed because this is not as sharp as the observation from The Office and is funnier in a different way. Once I realized that this had been mis-sold and is really just a normal sitcom then I was able to settle into it a lot more. As a sitcom it is better than the norm as it is at least recognisable (as opposed to forced family sitcoms) and the jokes are quite good and pretty much match the sort of banter you wish you could have. In reality most smoking room conversations are just small talk and b*tching but that wouldn't make for much of a series, so the pop culture references and the amusing dialogue keep it moving much better.The lack of a sharp edge on the material is a problem and I didn't feel that the series managed to build characters and stories as well as it should have done. The cast are all OK but I was never really sold on them as 'real' people – rather they were always actors albeit actors delivering some funny lines. In The Office (sorry to keep comparing – but the BBC started it!) the people were all recognisable and the laughs were tempered by the horror of seeing our workplaces slightly condensed into this one. Here performances are OK from Ayres, Webb, Marshall and the others but they feel like a sitcom cast and it is only the funnier than normal material that makes them rise above the genre.Overall this is not The Office and it is important to know that and not be sucked in by the attempts by the show and the BBC to align it with that. Rather this is a sitcom that is set in an office environment – it is not as sharp or as well observed as it could have been but it still manages to be funny. Watched as a sitcom it is funnier than the genre and blessedly free of canned laughter but this is just a sitcom and comparisons to The Office will only help it get an audience at the start – not keep it.