Hot on the heels of February's superbly swear comedy Wicked Little Letters comes Seize Them!, another fun British comedy romp that takes us on a silly cross-country trek that's driven by its colorful, characterful cast comprised of top comedic talent.
The story follows Queen Dagan (Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood), a spoilt tyrannical ruler who is deposed in the movie's opening act by the revolutionary leader Humble Joan (Nicola Coughlan). Driven from her home, Dagan becomes a fugitive in a kingdom that has a less-than-friendly opinion of their ex-Queen.
With a hefty bounty on her head and with few allies, Dagan forms a scrappy trio with the incredibly capable castle worker, Shulmay (Lolly Adefope), and a mild-mannered peasant, Bobik (Nick Frost). Together, they head off on a quest to Fingerstone Rock, where the former queen hopes to find allies that will help her reclaim the kingdom for herself. It's a simple, silly premise, one which plays out cartoonishly across its brief runtime.
"Daft" and "crude" are the order of the day in Seize Them! It feels like a new offering for the Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Horrible Histories crowds, but it's one primarily led by a female cast.
Andy Riley has penned a nimble script with a solid hit rate. A lively, irreverent mix of slapstick, bawdy banter and some surprisingly bloody bits form the brunt of the gags.
It treads through all the clichés of this kind of caper and prefers simple or recurring gags, but it still hits the mark more often than it misses and always knows when the fun has been had with a particular gag. Still, if violent punchlines and jokes about poop, blood, and guts aren't your bag, you might want to skip this one.
Undeniably the flick's biggest boon is its stars. Dagan is a smarmy figure, and Aimee Lou Wood plays her with enthusiasm, especially opposite her clearly capable servant Shulmay. All three of our core trio come from comic backgrounds (Sex Education, Ghosts, and Hot Fuzz, e.g.), and they bounce off one another with ease. Watching the relationship our perfunctory ruler has with her only loyal subjects evolve over the movie's brief runtime is a genuine pleasure.
Coughlan's "Humble" Joan is a genuine scene stealer, and it's a shame that she's confined to so few scenes after sweeping in and proving a formidable opponent in the opening act. And I'd be remiss not to call out Paul Kaye and John Macmillan, who make the most of their screentime as parody Scandi kings with purposefully trite accents.
Things do feel decidedly low-budget in places. There are a few naff props in the frame at points, and the world feels a little too empty; but even if the story's scale is a bit let down by the spareness, it kind of only adds to Seize Them!'s charm.
Overall, I left the theater more than satisfied. Seize Them! certainly doesn't outdo the projects that have so clearly influenced it, but all the elements come together well enough to make it a bloody good medieval romp across the countryside.
Seize Them! is in UK cinemas from Friday, April 5.
