Rent Paddington in Peru (2024)

Disappointing 3rd Film - Paddington in Peru review by GI

Basically this is Paddington does Indiana Jones in a lacklustre third outing that lacks the wit, comic timing, ideas and above all the magic of the first two films. With a new director there seems to be a sense that this is a by-the book film that is hampered by a mediocre script and feeble laughs. It also lacks a decent baddie,here with Antonio Banderas hamming it up and hardly trying. There's a mid end credits sequence with Hugh Grant which is the best bit of the whole film. Hugh Bonneville returns and Emily Mortimer replaces Sally Hawkins and Olivia Colman has a key role as a nun. The story is all summed up in the title really, Paddington is lured to Peru ostensibly to visit his Aunt Lucy, only to find she has gone missing and so he and the Brown family set off into the Amazon to find her and get into all sorts of mostly dull scrapes. Of course there's a plot behind all this and you have to remember this is basically for children but is missing the adult themed aspects that made the first two such a joy. A family film suitable for younger children, the rest will be disappointed.

Un-bear-ably Smug 2nd Sequel with a By-Numbers Well-funded Hollywood Feel to it - Paddington in Peru review by PV

OK so, disclaimer first: I loved and LOVE the original Paddington books, still have 4 hardback picture books, by Michael Bond. In them, the Browns live in a standard semi-detached house and are perhaps lower middle-class or respectable working class on a socio-economic scale, though the older moustached Mr Brown's trade is not revealed. Adventure are gentle, such as Paddington goes shopping or does gardening.

Look at the Browns now! They live in a house in Kensington which has no doubt doubled in price since the first Paddington movie a decade ago when it was worth 3 or 4 million, though the exterior is a real Georgian row of houses in posh Primrose Hill north London, though still worth £5 million. Two words: family inheritance. No way could someone working in a middle management insurance job afford that. These people are seriously rich, the upper class, the elite, though that'd usually mean the kids sent off to public school to acquire that annoying drawling accent kids affect in such places.

But remember THIS is a version of England that foreigners want to see, as Hugh Grant and before that David Niven gave the world of then the Englishman stereotype they always seem to want. So a lot of this is crude stereotype with added wokery, almost an advert for migrants to come to overcrowded London yet again, and yet again too the lie that it rains in London a lot. Nope, there is more annual rainfall in Rome actually and the south of England has been in drought for decades, a situation made worse by a sudden influx of millions putting huge pressure on infrastructure and water tables.

Anyhoo, this is what it is. I have always liked Ben Wishaw as Paddington's voice, as much as I find Olivia Coleman annoying in anything she is in.

The script is by-numbers, with so many 'plants' early on which are followed up on later I almost thought I was watching an episode of Paddington Goes to Midsomer Murders. But it made me laugh a few times, as it should when one sees who wrote the story/script, including Wallace and Gromit writers and deceptively handsome actor Simon Farnby (of GHOSTS and DETECTORISTS) with decent visual gags, but many things made me cringe too.

As with so many big budget and Hollywood films, it's all a bit spoilt in the third act where the jeopardy stakes get ramped up to absurd levels.

Watch the DVD extras and watch to the end of the film credits for a Hugh Grant monologue.

3 stars. My one wish is they do not make any more Paddington movies, but it's a corporate cash cow now so...

Overly talky kids’ film - Paddington in Peru review by Alphaville

The animation is exemplary, of course, but after the initial action sequence in the Peruvian jungle it’s blandly downhill from then on. Paddington’s lo-key adversary Antonio Banderas (miscast) could send you to sleep. Where’s Hugh Grant when you need him?