SWEETIE, YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT
Cert 15 ★★★
On digital and Blu-ray from tomorrow
To most Brits, the only amusing Kazakh is a fictional TV reporter played by Sacha Baron Cohen. But this accomplished crime caper gives us a real Kazakh funnyman.
You probably don’t know director Yernar Nurgaliyev from such smash hits as Brat ili Brak, Klasstastar and Sisitay, but the disgracefully unfashionable but fitfully very funny Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It could help Yernar find a more diverse audience.
This slapstick take on The Hangover begins with young father-to-be Dastan (Daniar Alshinov) suffering a barrage of earache from his heavily pregnant harridan of a wife.
Desperate for some respite, he organises a last-minute fishing trip with two old schoolmates – tiny policeman Murat (Yerlan Primbetov) and sex-toy entrepreneur Arman (Azamat Marklenov).
After some worryingly unfunny business involving blow-up dolls, the pair witness a gang of cartoon mobsters accidentally shoot a man in the face.
The bad guys give chase, before the gangsters find themselves hunted by a superfast, super-strong bald psychopath.
Nurgaliyev throws gore, gross-out comedy and, when a terrified Dastan learns that his wife has gone into labour, a ticking clock into the mix.
Can he outrun the killers and make it to the hospital in time? I imagine some of the verbal sparring may have got lost in translation, but it’s pacy, unpredictable, well-shot and his three leads are accomplished physical comics.
Its funniest moments prove that comedy can transcend borders. Does anything cut through cultural divides as powerfully as a well-timed fart joke?