Prismark10 The Full Monty is a charming feel good comedy but with dark undertones. Sheffield might had been once a city on the move thanks to its steel industry but by the 1990s it was facing industrial ruin. The factories were closing.Gary (Robert Carlyle) is unemployed and behind his child maintenance payments. With his best friend Dave (Mark Addy) he is reduced to stealing steel girders for spare cash.When they stumble upon women lining up at a working men's club to see The Chippendales, they hit upon the idea of doing their own strip show but go fully naked.They get a group of six together but they really cannot dance and some of them do not have the physique. Only Gerald (Tom Wilkinson) their former foreman has dance training and sets about teaching the rest the dance moves.As time goes on the men bond as they deal with issues such as being in debt, without a job or relationship problems.In some ways the film was inspired by The Boys from the Blackstuff without too much of the black comedy and grimness although it does have raw and rowdy humour.Robert Carlyle does a good northern accent more chipper than Chippendale who is confident until the time to start the show comes. Mark Addy and Hugo Speer became well known faces after this film. Horse played by Paul Barber is good fun as the veteran disco dancer.

Zac Eslick The dialogue is damn funny. The relationships between the six out-of-work steel workers forming a male stripping act to make money are great. "Hurry up, ya fat bastard." It's a motivational story. The camera-work is done well.The music suits the mood. The song Hot Stuff is featured. Another movie I like with this song is the 2015 movie The Martian featuring Matt Damon.I'd recommend it to anyone. It's entertaining considering the idea is a group of amateur male strippers.

Python Hyena The Full Monty (1997): Dir: Peter Cattaneo / Cast: Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber, Steve Huison: Hilarious British comedy about self outlook and going beyond goal or initial challenge. What makes the film so great is its casting of actors who are clearly not models. Robert Carlyle struggles for visitation rights with his son. Mark Addy plays a security guard worried about his weight. Tom Wilkinson lost everything to taxes and is harassed into giving dance lessons. Paul Barber might have once been a great dancer. After endless days at the job bank Carlyle suggests a one night strip tease, which leads to side-splitting mayhem. Great concept with an inspiring take on the average male but director Peter Cattaneo does careful cutting. Carlyle is fantastic in a role that is so different from his role in Trainspotting. Addy upholds the overweight people with a wife who looks beyond. Wilkinson loses his marriage when taxes become unbearable but he ultimately pulls everything together. Barber has back problems but can dance better than any of them. Steve Huison plays another member of the group and his mother passes away at one point. This is one film to cheer for but it also presents perhaps the best comedy situations in a film the whole year. No one need be ashamed of their physical self after these guys deliver the full monty. Score: 9 / 10

eric262003 In the 1970's, Sheffield, England was a booming city that had a very uplifting economy and steel was the hottest staple that came out at that time as a public relations informer told me. By the 1990's came around, due to lack of funding, a lot of the steel mills were sadly foreclosed. Unemployment was on the rise, people had to seek jobs elsewhere and those who have built their reputation in these companies struggled to adapt to either menial jobs or just plain stayed home and just collected welfare checks. Gaz (Robert Carlyle "Once Upon A Time") who's a divorced man lost custody to his teenage son as his wife found another man, who happens to be more financially secure than him. He continues to make sporadic visits on occasion to see his son Nathan (Willian Snape), but goes beyond as he makes Nathan a close companion. Desperate for money, Gaz finds a way he can make a substantial amount of cash. After hearing about a group of male strippers called the Chippendales come to town they seem to make a rather handsome profit in a rented hall that's usually packed. Gaz along with his friend Dave (Mark Addy) believe they could make the same amount by putting on a similar show.The only problem is that the gentlemen they recruit to bare their all are just average looking people, not the same type of prim and dashing individuals that are the Chippendales. And what's even worse is that their dancing skills are even worst than me (which is bad because I'm in theatre). The rest of the ragtag wannabe strippers include a former factory foreman Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), and a drifter named Horse (Paul Barber) who in spite of a bad hip is able to teach them a few moves. What's very curious to me is why in the world would these women be interested in seeing not so good-looking guys take their clothes off after getting much satisfaction from the Chippendales? Gaz suggests that they might get the upper hand if they're brave enough to go the full monty by baring all. The whole idea was trashed from the start as they fear that their bodies just don't have that mass appeal to get ladies the attention as one fears he's too skinny, the other fears he's too obese and the other is just too old to bear all.In all seriousness, "The Full Monty" touches on issues about finding work and that even though it's great and rewarding to have a job, there's always a possibility that the company you work for will not be around forever. And when you lose that job because of foreclosure you feel like everything you have done was all for nought. Sheffield is the primarily example of a once sprawling city where the power balance between men and women were abolished because men in that town were unable to provide for their families. Gerald who has not had a job in six months has been lying to his wife. But when he could no longer provide for his family, his wife wants him to break up. This might have happened in Gaz's situation with his wife before the movie takes off. The film closely links Dave's insecurities is to do anything to avoid becoming jobless. In fact the closest relationship is with Dave and his wife.The cast is entirely British and most people who live on North American soil may not be familiar to this group of relative unknowns. Carlyle is probably best known for his role as Mr. Gold (Rumpelstiltskin) from the TV series "Once Upon a Time", but even though he is the leading performer here, his performance is not the best one here. The real standouts are Addy's Dave and Wilkinson's Gerald. We root for the men not because they're bearing their gifts to the ladies, but because these men are trying to win back their livelihood so they could become more employable. Wilkinson seems to be the most comfortable of the trio, but his opportunities are quite scarce and it shows. Too bad that Paul Barber's Horse doesn't get much airtime. He seemed more energetic of the characters but there was not much story to make him more developed."The Full Monty" is one of many films to feature the poor state of the British economy In some ways it's a bit of an homage to "Brassed Off". Even the brass band featured in a dire situation in an early scene was just pure irony. But it's still a good comedy and even though it's over-the-top in content, the situation the characters face are real and may reflect that of the situation of the economy we're facing as I speak.