Cert PG
100 mins
BBFC advice: Contains mild bad language, violence, innuendo
Birmingham Cineworld, screen 2 at 9pm on Saturday night and the grey brigade had taken over.
For once in our lives, Mrs W and I were the youngsters among an audience who would, like us, have been devotees of the TV series of Dad's Army.
And Oliver Parker's film certainly plays to the paying public rather than the critics who have given it a pasting.
Interestingly, two days after watching it, my mum and dad saw it near their home in Coventry and loved it.
And so did, by the sounding of their raucous laughter, the crowd in Birmingham.
Dad's Army endears itself by nodding enthusiastically to the past while being different enough the original.
Toby Jones is splendid as the warm, pompous but clumsy Captain Mainwaring, leading the Home Guard of Warmington-On-Sea during the Second World War.
His squad's heads are turned by the arrival of a glamorous Associated Press correspondent (Catherine Zeta Jones) who says she is writing an article about them.
Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson (Bill Nighy) and Private Pike (Blake Harrison) fall for her over-the-top flattery while their indignant wives and girlfriends look on.
Of course, everyone except the platoon can see that the spy in their midst is the woman they have been fawning over.
The plot is as immaterial as it always was to the original Dad's Army.
What the crowd have come to see is Godfrey (the excellent Michael Gambon) having toilet trouble, Jones (Tom Courtenay) make a sausage joke, Fraser (Bill Paterson) say "we are all doomed" and Walker (the impressive Daniel Mays) offer inappropriate contraband deals.
It is giving nothing away by reporting that all the boxes are ticked.
In a surprise addition, Mainwaring's wife (Felicity Montagu) is seen for the first time. She leads the Women's Home Defence which also includes Mrs Pike (Sarah Lancashire).
Dad's Army could never recreate the quality of one of the most beloved TV series of all time (save the appearance of the original vicar, Frank Williams). That prompts the question why did they bother to make this movie?
I believe the answer is that it is a tribute rather than a copy and for this reason audiences will warm to it.
Reasons to watch: its deference to the wonderful TV series
Reasons to avoid: it can't match Arthur Lowe and co.
Laughs: five with more sniggers
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Star tweet
Daniel Mays Pay Attention! For those of you who've been living on Mars, #DadsArmy is released today. "Come on, look lively!"