Despite the bizarre nature of the plot, its simple to break down: Royston Vasey is facing the end of the world, and an assortment of its characters find a passage into the real world, where they discover they are mere creations in a comedy programme. Their plan is to track down the real League of Gentlemen and try and stop the demise of their fictitious home town. But when it becomes clear they have other non-Royston Vasey projects on their mind, the lines of fiction and reality become meshed even further.
There's no one thing that makes this film work as well as it does (in all fairness, the film really shouldn't have worked at all with such a storyline), but so many elements are so well put together that it makes for a wholly satisfying and totally genius movie. The League pull off a stirling job at not only playing their old characters, but all-new characters that inhabit the non-Vasey feature film they are scripting are just as entertaining. Credit to them also for putting less-obvious characters at the forefront of the plot. While the likes of Papa Lazarou and Tubbs and Edward do appear, its the grouping of Herr Lipp, Hilary Briss and Geoff Tipps that make up the key trio trying to force the League to keep Royston Vasey alive.
With three different 'universes' being played at one time, there was considerable danger of not getting the balance right, but this is again carried off effortlessly. Indeed, the style of shooting changes from the cinematic Royston Vasey, to the rather more handicam look to the real world. And when the film dips into the realm of the 1690s supernatural assassination thriller the League are writing in the movie for quite a brave amount of film time, it completely sucks you in, thanks to its compelling sub-plot (that soon becomes entwined with the main plot), some wonderful stop-motion animation and a host of great cameos.
Obviously there was a danger of becoming too self-referential and being up your own bum about the concept. A certain amount of knowledge is probably needed to enjoy the film as much as possible, though newcomers will pick it up as it goes along, and sometimes the film does make it seem like everyone knows about the League of Gentlemen TV series in real life (though with the League playing skewed versions of themselves - except, of course, Jeremy Dyson being played by Michael Sheen - the real world isn't an exact portrait of reality). However, its not all nods and winks to the camera. League references obviously pop up here and there (I'm sure a glass of orange juice in Reece Shearsmith's flat was placed there not by accident), but there are also plenty of film references as well to keep the cinematically conscious amused.
And of course its funny. Herr Lipp is naturally a fountain of inuendo, but Geoff Tipps probably provided the most chuckles from the audience (his episode in the 3rd series was my favourite, so I'm pleased he takes centre stage in the film). And on top of that, its got the sick, the horrific and the quite nastily gory as well.
Well, I've tried to make it as spoiler-free as possible, as its best to go into the film expecting the unexpected, as its in its surprises that the strength of the film lies. It certainly goes beyond the limits of anything they've done before, and I can't think of a funnier film I've seen so far this year, and its far cleverer than a TV show to film transfer has any right to be.
