Mindhorn (15)

Comedy

A has-been actor best known for playing the title character in the 1980s detective series "Mindhorn" must work with the police when a serial killer says that he will only speak with Detective Mindhorn, whom he believes to be a real person.

The critical consensus

Though stuck with stretches of guff and looking all too convincingly like video-era rubbish TV, Mindhorn delivers regular proper laughs and eventually wrings just enough drops of pathos to scrape by.

(*) (*) Kim Newman, Empire Online, 24/04/2017

A rib-tickling homage to the gumshoe shows of yesteryear, with an endearingly daffy mindset.

(*) Neil Smith, Total Film, 01/05/2017

Just brilliant. Barratt delivers a comedy performance for the ages.

(*) Adam Woodward, Little White Lies, 03/05/2017

It’s engaging and funny enough but can’t ever quite shake off the suspicion that it’s an idea stretched beyond its means - a story better suited to the small screen than to the cinema.

(*) (*) Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, 03/05/2017

Julian Barratt’s ridiculous – and ridiculously funny – film about the misadventures of a washed-up 80s TV star is a delight.

(*) Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 04/05/2017

Mindhorn is at best an acquired taste.

(*) (*) (*) Allan Hunter, Daily Express, 05/05/2017

It all adds breezy charm, harking back to the innocently scenic adventures of George Formby in the 1935 TT comedy No Limit, ironically conjuring a visual love letter to the IOM despite the inevitable “limited gene pool” gags that locals have long learned to take on the chin.

(*) (*) Mark Kermode, The Observer, 07/05/2017