The Young Ones

I watched this film not long after it was released and even then it felt cheesy and dated! The thing that screams out after recently watching it again, was that sadly Cliff was no actor and was a limited dancer. The flimsy storyline and the wooden acting makes it very much a 'B' film. The dialogue is all a bit too 'sugary' and 'golly gosh' let's put on a show and damn the consequences.' I remember seeing a similar but much older film, 'Strike up the Band,' with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Its in the same type of genre but 'The Young Ones,' lack the sparkle and energy of a Garland and Rooney! 'The Young Ones' tries too hard to to project the younger characters as innocents, who are out to to prove that the adults, like Robert Morley are 'fuddy duddies' - but all they simply achieve is to show how clueless and naive they really are. It would have been far better to have dispensed with Melvyn Hayes and Cliff's other unfunny sidekicks, and allowed the 'Shadows' to have had real speaking parts where Cliff could have played off the characters like Jet Harris and Hank Marvin, musicians he knew so well. As it was, Cliff gives a feeble, limp and lack lustre performance, and with corny gags and the contrived storyline, it all makes for a tedious experience.